Wade Korpi - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

Korpi played with the Canberra Cavalry during the 2015-16 ABL season as an American import. Korpi has five years experience playing in the Florida Marlins organisation between 2008 and 2012, before playing independent ball with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs for the following three years.

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Wade Korpi card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Wade Korpi card front - ©2016 Adam East

Justin Erasmus - 2015-16 Brisbane Bandits

Erasmus played his sixth ABLs eason with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2015-16 ABL season - his fifth with the Bandits.  Erasmus has been fairly active in Europe in the northern summers. In 2015 he played for the Oosterhout Twins in the Dutch Hoofdklasse before moving on to the Munich-Haar Disciples in the German Baseball Bundesliga in 2016.

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Justin Erasmus card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Justin Erasmus alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Matthew Swilley - 2015-16 Adelaide Bite

Swilley is an American import who played with the Adelaide Bite during the 2015-16 ABL season. Swilley played four seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays between 2009 and 2013. In 2015 he played for the Joplin Blasters in the independent American Association.

I only managed to get some shots of Swilley in night time relief, so shots with really poor lighting. This was the best of a bad bunch.

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Matthew Swilley card front - ©2016 Adam East

Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas to all. It's always a good time to reflect on how we are doing spiritually.

Grant Heyman - 2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox

Heyman is an American import from the Arizona Diamondbacks organisation who played with the Sydney Blue Sox in the 2015-16 ABL season. In 2015 eh split time between the Diamondbacks Rookie, Low A and Single A affiliates, before moving up to the Visalia Rawhide in 2016.

2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox Grant Heyman card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox Grant Heyman alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Michael Benjamin - 2015-16 Perth Heat

Mike Benjamin is an American import from the Colorado Rockies organisation who played with the Perth Heat during the 2015-16 ABL season. In 2015 he spent most of his time with the Modesto Nuts, the Rockies Advanced A affiliate, before advancing to their Double A affiliate, the Hartford Yard Goats in 2016.

2015-16 Perth Heat Michael Benjamin card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Perth Heat Michael Benjamin alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Takanori Hoshi (星 孝典) - 2015-16 Melbourne Aces

Hoshi was a Japanese import who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2015-16 ABL season. Hoshi had previously spent 7 seasons in the NPB between 2006 and 2014 (three with the Yomiuri Giants and four with the Seibu Lions.)

2015-16 Melbourne Aces Takanori Hoshi card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Melbourne Aces Takanori Hoshi alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Cord Sandberg - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

Sandberg is an American import from the Philadelphia Phillies organisation who played with the Canberra Cavalry during the 2015-16 ABL season. In 2015 Sandberg played with the Lakewood BlueClaws, the Phillies single A affiliate, moving up to their advance A affiliate, the Clearwater Threshers in 2016.

Whilst the first photo is a fairly standard game shot of him running onto the field,I couldn't resist adding in the second shot of him mucking about in the dugout with his team mates.

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Cord Sandberg card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Cord Sandberg alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Andrew Campbell - 2015-16 Brisbane Bandits

Campbell suited up for his sixth season with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2015-16 ABL season. Campbell played as a member of the Australian National Team fo the first time at the Honkbalweek Haarlem in 2016 before having his preparations for the 2016-17 ABL season interrupted with appendicitis.

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Andrew Campbell card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Andrew Campbell alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Tom Brice - 2015-16 Adelaide Bite

Brice was fun to shoot - he had fun "hiding from the paparazzi" and interacting with me throughout the evening. His 2015-16 ABL season was his fifth with the Adelaide Bite.

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Tom Brice card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Tom Brice alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Craig Anderson - 2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox

Veteran Blue Sox starter Anderson returned for his sixth ABL season with Sydney during the 2015-16 ABL season. I wasn't able to get a shot of Anderson on the field, but I did manage to catch him walking through the crowd on the way through to the clubrooms.

2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox Craig Anderson card front - ©2016 Adam East

Josh Silvi - 2015-16 Perth Heat

Having spent 3 seasons with Perth and then heading to the Adelaide Bite for the 2014-15 season, Silvi became the prodigal son, returning back to his native Perth Heat for the 2015-16 ABL season, his fifth in the ABL.

2015-16 Perth Heat Josh Silvi card front - ©2016 Adam East

Takayuki Yamaguchi (山口 嵩之) - 2015-16 Melbourne Aces

Yamaguchi is a Japanese import from the Seibu Lions organisation who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2015-16 ABL season. Yamaguchi has yet to make his NPB debut with the Lions since being drafted back in 2013.

2015-16 Melbourne Aces Takayuki Yamaguchi card front - ©2016 Adam East

Tyson Walker - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

Walker is a Canadian import who played for the Canberra Cavalry during the 2015-16 ABL season. He had previously spent 2014 and 2015 playing for Abilene Christian College. In 2016 he played with the London Mets in the British National Baseball League.

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Tyson Walker card front - ©2016 Adam East

Ryan Searle - 2015-16 Brisbane Bandits

Searle had his sixth season with the Brisbane Bandits during the 2015-16 ABL season. He made the move from Starting Pitcher to the bullpen with amazing success, posting a 5-2 win-loss record and an 0.40 ERA over 31 games.

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Ryan Searle card front - ©2016 Adam East

John Schultz - 2015-15 Adelaide Bite

Schultz is an American import who played with the Adelaide Bite during the 2015-16 ABL season. Schultz had spent two years in the Miami Marlins organisation (2011 and 2012) before being released and spending the following years playing independent ball. In 2012 and 2016 Schultz played with the Evansville Otters in the Frontier League.

2015-16 Adelaide Bite John Schultz card front - ©2016 Adam East

Calvin Drummond - 2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox

Drummond was an American import from the Detroit Tigers organisation who played with the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2015-16 ABL season. In both 2015 and 2016 he split time between the Lakeland Flying Tigers and the Erie Seawolves, the Tigers' Advanced A and Double A affiliates respectively.

2015-16 Syndey Blue Sox Calvin Drummond card front - ©2016 Adam East

Tom Bailey - 2015-16 Perth Heat

Bailey is a local West Aussie who had his second year with the Perth Heat during the 2015-16 ABL season. Bailey had experience playing college ball in the USA with Dakota State University and Wayland Baptist University before being signed with the Heat.

2015-16 Perth Heat Tom Bailey card front- ©2016 Adam East

Bandits School of Baseball Uses My Images

Always interesting to see where my card images pop up. I discovered recently that the Queensland School of Baseball has been using a number of my images on their site.

All up they use five of my card images - four from my 2014-15 card design - Ryan Battaglia, Mitch Nilsson, Sam Holland and Maxx Tissenbaum, and one - Logan Wade from my 2012-13 card designs.

That now means that every single club except Melbourne have used at least one of my image so far. If only I was getting paid for them 😊

Mike Hill - 2015-16 Melbourne Aces

Hill was an American import from the Kansas City Royals who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2015-16 ABL season. In 2015 he played with the Lexington Legends in the Single A level South Atlantic League, also returning to them in 2016, along with shorter stints at the Advanced A level Wilmington Blue Rocks.

2015-16 Melbourne Aces Mike Hill card front - ©2016 Adam East

Michael Click - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

Click is an American import who played with the Canberra Cavalry during the 2015-16 ABL season. Click came over with five years experience playing independent ball, in 2015 playing with the Camden Riversharks in the Atlantic League.

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Michael Click card front - ©2016 Adam East

Play Ball - Start of the 2016-17 ABL Season

Tonight is the start of the 2016-17 Australian Baseball League season, however I have struggled to get excited for this season. I've put this down to several reasons:

1. Real World Priorities: I've been struggling to finish off my card set of the 2015-16 ABL season. Due to a combination of competing real life priorities, health issues, etc, I only finished doing the front of last season's cards yesterday. Doing the backs is usually the larger time consuming part, so there's still a lot of work to be done to have them print ready. Normally I have the designs done and started printing before the start of the next season. It'll still be a long time before I have my 2015-16 ABL set in hand, and the 2015-16 designs will still be appearing on this blog for a while. I haven't even contemplated a design for the 2016-17 cards yet.

2. The Loss of MLB Backing: Major League Baseball has been helping to fund the revamped Australian Baseball League during its first six seasons. Well, that funding source was cut off during 2016, with the expectation that the ABL now needs to stand financially on its own 2 feet. The problem is, the ABL is still struggling in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne. To be able to be self-funding, those 2 markets need to take off, and take off big, as they cover over 2/3rds of the Australian audience. The continuing non-success of these 2 teams means that they struggle to gain media support and their lack of penetration must be a financial thorn in the side of the self funding ABL model. This has resulted in the contraction of the ABL season from 56 games back to 40 games in 2016-17, and notable commentary already from teams that money is tight.

3. Missing 2016-17 Photo Opportunities: For the last 6 years I've been making my personal ABL cards, with only the initial 2010-11 season (when I was only trying out the idea for cards), being when I didn't have photo coverage of every team. A family holiday this year, combined with the contracted season length means that I won't get to photograph every ABL team this season. I'll be missing out on shooting Perth, the ABL team I support. That's disappointing and the OCD in me is frustrated at the idea of starting a set that only contains five of the six ABL teams, and of missing my favourite team.

The first games won't be played locally until next week. I still then have to come up with a 2016-17 card design, so it will still probably be a while until my 2016-17 card images start appearing here.

Mitch Nilsson - 2015-16 Brisbane Bandits

Nilsson returned for his sixth and arguably best ABL season with the Brisbane Bandits, nearly equalling the number of games in 2015-16 as he'd played across the previous 5 seasons.

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Mitch Nilsson card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Mitch Nilsson alternate card front - ©2016 Adam Eas

Chris Adamson - 2015-16 Adelaide Bite

After four years previous experience playing in the ABL with the Bite, Adamson started out the 2015-16 ABL season on the Adelaide Bite coaching staff. I'm not sure if staying on there was part of the plan, but by the back end of the season, Adamson had pulled the Bite uniform back on again in a playing capacity.

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Chris Adamson card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Chris Adamson alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Jake Webster - 2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox

Webster is a local Sydney boy who made his ABL debut with the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2015-16 ABL season, playing two games during the season. He played college ball for the Bethany College Swedes between 2010 and 2012, but has played primarily in the NSW club level competition since then.

2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox Jake Webster card front - ©2016 Adam East

Cameron Lamb - 2015-16 Perth Heat

Lamb was another of the returning Perth Heat regulars, with the 2015-16 ABL season being his sixth with the club and ABL. What is he doing in this photo? I couldn't work out whether he was trying to hide his mustache or make his lip bigger .... either way, not your average baseball photo :)

2015-16 Perth Heat Cameron Lamb card front - ©2016 Adam East

Yasuo Sano (佐野 泰雄) - 2015-16 Melbourne Aces

Sano is a Thai-born, Japanese-rasied import from the Seibu Lions who played with the Melbourne Aces during the 2015-16 ABL season. Sano made his NPB for the Lions in 2015, before returning to the Lions NPB line-up in 2016.

2015-16 Melbourne Aces Yasuo Sano card front - ©2016 Adam East

2015-16 Melbourne Aces Yasuo Sano alternate card front - ©2016 Adam East

Jason Leblebijian - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

Leblebijian is an American import from the Toronto Blue jays organisation who played with the Canberra Cavalry during the 2015-16 ABL season, where he won the Cavalry's MVP award. He's also a candidate for the "How am I meant to pronounce that surname?" contest. Leblebijian spent 2015 with Toronto's Single and Advanced A affiliates, the Lansing Lugnuts and Dunedin Blue Jays. In 2016, he returned to Dunedin and was promoted to the New Hampshire Fisher cats, the Blue Jays Double A affiliate.

For the record, when he was in Canberra, I always heard his name pronounced "leb-la-bee-gee-an" with the "gee" part being pronounced like the name of the letter "G".

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Jason Leblebijian card front - ©2016 Adam East

Matthew Timms - 2015-16 Brisbane Bandits2015-16 Brisba

Timms returned to the Brisbane Bandits for his second season in the ABL during the 2015-16 ABL season.

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Matthew Timms card front - ©2016 Adam East

Ben Lodge - 2015-16 Adelaide Bite

Local boy Lodge returned for his 5 th season with the Adelaide bite during the 2015-16 ABL season. In 2015 Lodge also played his first season of independent ball in the US for the Frontier Greys in the Pioneer League.

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Ben Lodge card front - ©2016 Adam East

Andrew Azzopardi - 2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox

Azzopardi certainly seems to be an interesting character. He traveled and suited up with the Blue Sox during the 2015-16 ABL season, but didn't actually play any games with them and has yet to make his ABL debut. It does look like he traveled as a player rather than as a coach though. Azzopardi plays with the Blacktown Workers club in Sydney as well as coaching the Workers' women's team. He did have a single year playing independent ball in the US backn in 2013, playing in the Pecos League, and ended up featuring in a Fox Sports TV show - 'The Pecos League".

2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox Andrew Azzopardi card front - ©2016 Adam East

Derek Peterson - 2015-16 Perth Heat

Peterson is an American import from the Baltimore Orioles organisation who played with the Perth Heat during the 2015-16 ABL season. In 2015 Peterson played for the Orioles single and advanced A affiliates, the Delmarva Shorebirds and the Frederick Keys respectively. It appears that he's spent all of the 2016 season on the disabled list, but I haven't been able to identify the nature of the injury.

2015-16 Perth Heat Derek Peterson card front - ©2016 Adam East

Rafael Fernandes - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

Fernandes is a Brazilian born import who played with the Canberra Cavalry during the 2015-16 ABL season.  Fernandes had previously pitched in 10 games for the Yakult Swallows in the Japanese NPB across 2011 and 2012.

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Rafael Fernandes card front - ©2016 Adam East

Logan Wade - 2015-16 Brisbane Bandits

Wade returned to the Brisbane Bandits during the 2015-16 ABL season, marking his fourth with the Bandits and in the ABL. He spent both the 2015 and 2016 seasons with the Minnesota Twins advanced A affiliate the Fort Myers Miracle in the Florida State League.

2015-16 Brisbane Bandits Logan Wade card front - ©2016 Adam East

Daniel Nilsson - 2015-16 Adelaide Bite

Hmm ... a Nilsson not playing for Queensland?!? Dave Nilsson and his extended family have had a long history in Queensland and the Brisbane Bandits so it was surprising to see Dave's nephew Daniel sign and play with the Adelaide Bite for the 2015-16 ABL season. Daniel had previously been playing for the Redcliffe Padres in Brisbane and spent several years in Queensland's U23 squad.

2015-16 Adelaide Bite Daniel Nilsson card front - ©2016 Adam East

Matthew Rae - 2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox

Rae returned for his fifth season with the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2015-16 ABL season and saw the most game time yet in a season yet during his ABL career.

2015-16 Sydney Blue Sox Matthew  Rae card front - ©2016 Adam East

Aaron James Thompson (Aus) - 2015-16 Canberra Cavalry

The "Australian" Aaron Thompson had to put up with the arrival of his namesake from America, resulting in two pitchers named Aaron Thompson on the Canberra Cavalry roster for the 2015-16 ABL season. The outcome was that the Aussie Thompson started being referred to as Aaron J or Aaron James. Not sure why he had to add the identifier to his name, noting that he was the "original" Aaron Thompson on the roster. The 2015-16 season was his fifth in the ABL and his thrid with the Cavalry.

2015-16 Canberra Cavalry Aaron J Thompson card front - ©2016 Adam East