Monday, March 18, 2024

Canadians in the Majors: Tyler O'Neill

 Hello Friends!

Today I'm going to make this one focus on Tyler O'Neill..

Tyler O'Naill was born June 22, 1995 in Burnaby, British Columbia


He currently lives in Maple Ridge, British Columbia


He was taken in the third round of the 2013 draft by the Seattle Mariners. He worked his way through the Mariners system including a season that won him the Southern League MVP in 2016. The Jackson Generals won the Southern League Championship. 

On July 21, 2017, he was traded to the Cardinals for Marco Gonzales and continued working at the Triple A Level, this time in Memphis. In 2017, the Memphis Redbirds won the Pacific Coast League Championship. The resulting win meant O'Neill was part of two consecutive championship teams, in two leagues for two different organizations. 


After the 2017 season he was added to the 40 man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.
His time in St Louis has been riddled with injuries, with him having one season where he accumulated more than 500 at bats. He did win two Gold Gloves for his defence. 






On December 8, 2023, he was traded to Boston for Nick Robertson and Victor Santos. 








He's an avid weightlifter and piano player. For his weightlifting, he was given the nickname Popeye in the Southern League. 

He has played the piano to entertain his teammates from time to time. His favourite song to play is O Canada. He's also played the Lord of the Rings Theme. 

His father was named Mr Canada, an honour given to the Nation's best bodybuilder, in 1975. 

I do hope he is able to stay healthy because I'd like to see him have a good career. That said, since he's on Boston... I'm of two minds on it. 










Sunday, March 17, 2024

2024 Topps

 Hello Friends!


Yes, I know I'm very late to the party of talking about 2024 Topps. I didn't want to say anything until I had some in my grubby little paws.. 

Thanks to Cardsoncards, AKA Kerry, I have some 2024 Topps now. 

It started out him having some cards he wanted to get rid of, and mentioned Tyler O'Neill. Well, being a collector of Canadian born players, I jumped at the chance to widen my collection of his considerably. It also came at a time where I'm dreading the task of going through my collection to ensure what it says I have on TCDB is actually in my collection. I also know there's a considerable amount not there.. 

Anyway.. Here are the 2024s I got



Josh Naylor. One of two Naylors on the Guardians. Josh's brother Bo is a teammate of his. Their younger brother was drafted by the Oak Vegas A's 


Joey Votto! In what could be one of his final Topps cards (Let's see how many sets they cram him into this year) he's currently in the Jays camp. He doesn't expect to be with the team when they go north, but does hope to make it to Toronto this season. 


Cavan Biggio. 
So we have a horizontal card and I don't hate it. I feel that in the not so distant past, Topps would have cropped it so close that Biggio's arm and the baseball wouldn't be visible.

One sign that baseball is back.. Spring-er has sprung!
I do like the design this year. Do I like it enough to try to collect the set? I don't know. If I do I would be sacrificing some other sets I haven't really been overly enthused about. 


Jordan Romano! The Cheese Man. Again I think the horizontal orientation works best for this one. 

The Bouncing Boys in Blue Jays Blue..

Hey look! It's Tyler O'Neill.. 
It'll be interesting to see how he does in Boston this year. It'll also be interesting to see if he stays healthy this year.

I like this card though I think I need to do some reading up on Spencer to see who he is.. 
I just hope his homerun celebration isn't the Barry Horowitz self-back-pat....

Ah here's Bo Naylor. 



Finally two more Jays with Kevin Gausman and Danny Jansen. 

The cards are really nice. I think tomorrow I'll be going through mt plan to set up the computer in the card room and go from there. 




Monday, March 4, 2024

Delorimier Stadium Custom

 Hello Friends!

Today I'm back with another custom card I made up. Ultimately, I'm looking at this ending up being a set of stadium cards

Today, as the title mentions, it's Delorimier Stadium that was in Montreal, Quebec. 

So, before the Expos were in Montreal, the city had minor league teams called the Royals dating back to 1897. Starting in the Eastern League (Not the same one as current) the Royals followed along as the League changed names in 1912 to the International League. It was a Double A league until 1945 when it became the current version, Triple A..

From 1928 to 1960, the Royals played in a stadium in a residential area called DeLorimier Stadium.

It was located at 2101 Ontraio Street in Montreal



The block in the middle of this map from Google shows where the park sat. 

When the park opened, the Royals were a co-op team until 1933 when the Athletics selected Montreal as a farm team for two years. (1933-1934)
From 1937-1938, the Pirates sent prospects here. 
Then.. From 1939-1960, the remainder of the lifespan of the Royals and the park, the Brooklyn Dodgers had this as one of their Triple A homes.
From 1946-1960, the Dodgers had Two Triple A teams. The Royals, and the St. Paul Saints. 1949 and 1950 had the Hollywood Stars join them as a third Triple A team. 1958-1960, St Paul and Montreal were joined by Spokane. 
By time 1960 rolled around, the Dodgers were in Los Angeles and wanted to keep their Triple A players closer to the team, making the Royals expendable. The team ended up being sold and moved to Syracuse to become the Chiefs. 

When the Expos were being welcomed into Major League Baseball in 1969, there was talk of using Delorimier Stadium as their temporary home. However, at 20000 seats, it was too small. Its location meant it could not be renovated or expanded. Instead, the Expos moved into a hastily expanded Jarry Park, and Delorimier Downs, the place where Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in Organized Baseball, met the wrecking ball. A school went up on the site. 

The Dodgers affiliation meant that many great players, including several Hall of Famers, passed through Montreal on their way to Brooklyn.
Walter Alston, Ed Barrow, Roberto Clemente, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Jocko Conlan, Don Drysdale, Burleigh Grimes, Waite Hoyt, Rabbit Maranville (Manager) and Duke Snider. 
Other great managers and eventual Hall of Fame managers that played here include Gene Mauch, Joe Altobelli, Tommy Lasorda, Sparky Anderson, and Dick Williams. 

The Royals won 7 Governor's Cup trophies as the Winner of the International League Playoffs and won 3 Junior World Series. 



So, here is the custom card I created for Delorimier Downs. 
What do you think? 
Also, did you enjoy the little stadium writeup I did with this card? It kind of combines the Stadium Series I've been working on and the custom cards I've been working on. 






Thursday, February 22, 2024

Jarry Park Front MK2

Hello Friends!

Tonight I want to share with you another version of the Jarry Park custom I've been working on. 

A couple things I didn't like about the first one was the way the logo looked. The other thing I didn't like was the lettering on the bottom. 

So I tried another version.. 

I may touch it up again, depending on how I feel.. 


So.. Drumroll please..


*drum roll* 

*watches the drum roll down the hallway, hopes nobody gets in the way.. hears it bounce down the stairs... * 


*ahem...*



I think this version looks so much better.. About the only thing I might change would be the border on the top to blue. Otherwise, I love this version. This may actually end up turning into a template if I end up working on a set of stadium cards like I've been thinking about. 

What say you? Do you like this version? Would you change the top part to blue? Or does this work?

EDIT:

I ended up going and trying the blue border on the top.. 


This is what it looks like.. I think it works.. 





Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Jarry Park has a Back

 Hello Friends!

Last post was the front of the card I made for Jarry Park. I may play with it more to improve it some.. 

But today I created a back for it. 

I'm actually pretty happy about how this turned out..


I think the only thing I don't like is not having that much under the line. 

I will admit, I borrowed the template from this card:


I think if I was using more robust software, I could add things like year by year record and maybe smaller font size.. Though I think some of my friends and fellow collectors may like the font they don't need a magnifying glass for.. 

(sorry)

So, what say you? How was my attempt at the creation? Once I get more confortable/back on a better machine, I may try doing more freehand stuff.. Until then this is wonderful for me. 




Thursday, February 15, 2024

First Attempt

 Hello Friends!

Well, I've had ideas bouncing around in my head for a while. One of those was to create a set of Stadium custom cards. 

Tonight was my first attempt. I just created the front.. I'm likely going to go back and do another try later 


But... Here it is



I borrowed the bottom design from a Stuart Bakery Expos set. Since it was vertical, I had to rearrange the lines and logo to a horizontal configuration. I'm not 100% sold on the font and debating on if I take another kick at the can, to actually put the logo on, rather than have it as part of the background. And maybe have a bit of a border around the picture.. 

So, dear readers.. What say you? I'm also thinking about what to create for the back of the card. 


Thursday, February 8, 2024

Canadian Minor League Baseball

 Hello Friends!

I just finished the book Canadian Minor League Baseball: A History Since WWII


It details the year by year results and happenings for the Canadian based teams in the different minor leagues. 
The start documents the International League's teams in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. (Toronto and Montreal lasted much longer than Ottawa)

Obviously we know Jackie Robinson got his start in "Organized Baseball" in Montreal. There were many Brooklyn Dodgers stars that went through Montreal, really too many to mention, though it is interesting to see names like Gene Mauch, Roland Gladu, Al Campanis, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Duke Snider, Tommy Lasorda, and Roy Hartsfield.
Really there seems to be a number of managers that played for the Royals. Hartsfield, Mauch, Lasorda, and Sparky Anderson. 
The Royals were affiliated with the Dodgers until the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, putting their affiliation in Spokane. 
The Toronto Maple Leafs were the complete opposite. They had affiliations with the Phillies, Athletics, Browns, Indians, and stints as an unaffiliated team. 
Leon Day played for the Leafs. As did Elston Howard, Sparky Anderson (who also started his managing career here) Chuck Tanner, Mack Jones, Bobby Knoop, Dennis Menke, Rico Carty and Phil Roof. 
(Interesting that Carty and Roof played for both the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays) 
By time 1967 rolled around, attendance and stadium issues caused the team to be sold and moved to Louisville.

Other Leagues mentioned were the ManDak, Western International League, Northern League, PONY, The Provincial League (run in Quebec) Eastern League, NYP, the Independent Northern League, American Association (current), Frontier League, Northeast/Can-Am League, Northwest League, Pioneer League, and Pacific Coast League. 

Things I found out through the book:
Canadians were very hospitable to black players
The Canadian Baseball League maybe needed more time to plan and get things together before trying to run.. 
Booms and lulls boiled down to the economy, people having options for entertainment, and weather. 
Edmonton and Calgary will probably never see another minor league team
Nation capitals seem to not be very great at hosting teams.. (Ottawa had a number of minor league teams both in Organized and Independent ball that never really got off the ground) 
One team in London was going to be called the Rippers.. Until backlash hit. Then they became the Werewolves. 

If you enjoy reading about minor league teams and want to learn more about it in a Canadian angle, this book can be insightful. 

Until next time!