Australian Custom Baseball Cards: February 2015

Friday, February 27, 2015

Maxx Tissenbaum - 2014-15 Brisbane Bandits

Tissenbaum is a Canadian import from the Tampa Bay Rays organisation who played with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2014-15 ABL season. Tissenbaum spent 2014 with the Charlotte Stone Crabs in the High A level Florida State League. Check out his blog - Red, White and the 3-0 Green Light - for an interesting read.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Morgan Coombs - 2014-15 Adelaide Bite

Coombs is an American import who played with the Adelaide Bite during the 2014-15 ABL season. Coombs has spent the previous three years playing for the Gary SouthShore RailCats of the independent American Association. Coombs compiled an impressive 7-1 record with a 1.95 ERA over 16 games with the Bite.

Not exactly the most exciting of shots, but I'd rather a dugout photo of a player taking stats than no photo at all.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Jaspreet Shergill - 2014-15 Sydney Blue Sox

Canadian import Shergill graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 2014 and spent some time playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Intercounty baseball League. He made his way over to Australia and Brisbane club level baseball before being picked up by the Brisbane Bandits for the start of the 2014-15 ABL season. I don't know what transpired at the Bandits, but after what was considered a successful start to his ABL career, he ended up on the Sydney Blue Sox roster for the last third of the season.

I happened to grab this photo of him during an extremely long rain delay up in Sydney. It's not the best, but it's something

Friday, February 20, 2015

Mike McClendon - 2014-15 Perth Heat

Former MLB player McClendon played as an American import with the Perth Heat during the 2014-15 ABL season. McClendon played 35 games with the Milwaukee Brewers between 2010 and 2012. He was signed by the Colorado Rockies at the start of 2013, playing a year in their farm system before being released. He started 2014 playing for the York Revolution in the independent Atlantic League before again being signed by the Rockies. He spent the rest of 2014 between their double A and Triple A affiliates - the Tuisa Drillers and Colorado Springs Sky Sox respectively before again being released and plying his trade in the ABL.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Isamu Sato (佐藤勇) - 2014-15 Melbourne Aces

Sato is a Japanese import from the Seibu Lions who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2014-15 ABL season. Although it's one of my dreaded night-time images, it hasn't turned out too bad.

On a side note - there's a problem with my computer at the moment. It's dropping the graphics output after about 10-15 minutes after being turned on. Makes it really difficult to try and do any work in Photoshop. I'm unsure how regular my updates on the blog will be until I get it fixed. Hopefully it's just a GPU issue and not a motherboard problem. Until sorted, the frequency of my updates will be irregular.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Marcus Lemon - 2014-15 Canberra Cavalry

Marcus Lemon is the son of former triple MLB All Star player Chet Lemon. Marcus played for the Canberra Cavalry as an American import for the 2014-15 ABL season. He had spent nine years in the Minor leagues between the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers organisations. He had split 2014 between the Tiger's AA affiliate, the Eries SeaWolves and their AAA level affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens.

I did actually post a card concept design for Lemon from the Cavalry pre-season game, but this is his regular season card.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Tommy Coyle - 2014-15 Brisbane Bandits

Coyle is an American import from the Tampa Bay Rays organisation who played with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2014-15 ABL season. Coyle spent 2014 playing for the Charlotte Stone Crabs in the highA level Florida League.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Troy Scott - 2014-15 Adelaide Bite - (A Very Naughty Boy)

Hmmm. American import Scott has been a very naughty boy, but more about that further in the post. From the Seattle Mariners organisation, Scott played with the Adelaide Bite during the 2014-15 ABL season. Scott mainly spent 2014 with the Pulaski Mariners in the rookie level Appalachian League, with a single appearance for the low A level Everett AquaSox.

What Scott is most likely to be remembered for though is his ugly part in a bench clearing brawl in a game between the Bite and the Melbourne Aces. Several pieces of footage show Scott allegedly king hitting Aces import Kellin Deglan from the Texas Rangers organisation. Deglan ended up requiring dental work from the incident.

Scott was originally suspended by the ABL for six games - the longest ban in ABL history - for his part in the brawl. Deglan later gave a statement to police which has resulted in Scott's arrest and being charged with assault causing harm. He was released on bail.

The ABL originally promoted the brawl video, however they've obviously had some second thoughts about the bad publicity it's caused. Scott's punishment has gone from 6 games to an indefinite suspension from the ABL.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Congratulations to the Perth Heat - 2014-15 Australian Baseball League Champions

Well, the ABL has now been going 5 seasons, and in that time, Perth have taken out their fourth Championship. They wrapped up the 2014-15 ABL Championship last night, defeating Adelaide in the third game of the Championship series.

Australian Baseball League's Facebook graphic celebrating the Heat's win

Here's the whole game in the Youtbube link below, or the winning runs and out in the next two entries.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Josh Dean - 2014-15 Sydney Blue Sox

Experienced Aussie player Dean returned for his fourth ABL season with the Sydney Blue Sox in 2014-15. With Matt Williams' move to the Bite several seasons ago, Dean is now the resident "beard" for the Blue Sox.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Luke Hughes - 2014-15 Perth Heat

Former Aussie MLB player Hughes returns in 2014-15 for his fifth straight season in the ABL with the Perth Heat. Although still playing for the Heat during the ABL season, 2014 marked the start of Hughes' move into coaching. He spent 2014 in coaching roles with both the Australian women's baseball team and the MLB Australian Academy on the Gold Coast. During his time playing with the Heat during the 2014-15 season he was also the team's hitting instructor. Anybody who can boast of having hit a home run with your first MLB at bat definitely has some batting skill they can pass on to up and coming players.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Makoto Aiuchi (相内誠) - 2014-15 Melbourne Aces

Aiuchi is a Japanese import who returned to the Melbourne Aces for the 2014-15 ABL season, his second in the ABL. Aiuchi is a member of the Seibu Lions organisation, making his NPB debut with the Lions in 2014.

Aiuchi had fun playing around in the dugout ... I was tempted to try and utilise one of these type of shots as his card front :) Nice to see Japanese players who were outgoing, rather than closeted away avoiding everyone as many of the non-native-English speaking imports tend to do.