March 10, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

PHOENIX, Ariz _ It had only been 1,047 days between outings for John Axford.

But he was back. Back on a major-league mound. Back where he enjoyed so much success with the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 2 2021. The Miller Park video board had shown highlights from some of his 106 saves for the club, plus three in post-season play, and played his entrance music: Refused’s “New Noise.”

Only 22 pitches later Axford (Port Dover, Ont.) was out of the game and later as he sat at his locker a large figure loomed. Rowdy Tellez, a former teammate with Axford at triple-A Trenton (when the Toronto Blue Jays were not allowed to cross the border and had to make Buffalo its home, shuffling Buffalo off to Trenton, N.J.).

“It was chilling to hear his song,” said Tellez, the ex-Jay, said Friday at Chase Field wearing his white and green Mexico uniform before batting practice. “He was such an iconic pitcher for the Brewers. It was really sad. To see him work that hard to get back and then get injured again.”

Tellez put his arm around Axford in the clubhouse that night.

“Rowdy could tell I had a few tears,” said Axford the other day, “he had a human moment with me. He’s gone through a lot, too.”

Tellez explained how when Axford departed Trenton he left a bottle of wine for each of his teammates. The first baseman was impressed by the first class gesture.

Has Tellez thought about a possible match-up against Team Canada’s Axford when Mexico takes on Canada Wednesday?

“No, but I’ll look at him,” Tellez said. “I’ll make him laugh.”

Many ex-teammates focus on the catcher’s mitt or a pitcher’s release point rather than looking a buddy in the eye. “I can make John smile, just by looking at him.”

And after that?

“I’ll win,” said Tellez.

* * *

Every player in the WBC has overcome some kind of hardship, injury, stumble, a bad management decision or failed to get along with a coach or manager.

As Buck O’Neill used to say, “It’s a hard game.”

Yet, Axford continues to roll along ... he didn’t give up when he had Tommy John surgery in 2003 while pitching for Notre Dame, or when he went 3–8 with a 5.01 ERA in college ball with Mike McRae’s (Niagara Falls, NY) Canisius Golden Griffs, or in 2018, after being released by the Los Angeles Dodgers after allowing seven earned runs in 3 2⁄3 innings, or having bone spurs removed from his right elbow.

After pitching for the rookie-class Blue Jays and triple-A Buffalo, he was dealt to Milwaukee. And he didn’t wave a white flag after that painful exit from the Miller Park mound as doctors diagnosed structural damage and Tommy John surgery in September of 2021.

As he said earlier this week, he was back in the majors at 10 a.m. And his season was over by 10 p.m. Axford was in Milwaukee for a few days as doctors and trainers decided on the next step with his elbow.

“I saw Rowdy leaving the batting tunnel as they were going to have him pinch hit,” Axford said. “He homered to win the game.”

Tellez took Chasen Shreve deep for a three-run homer to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2.

* * *

That dramatic, feel-good night for Axford in Milwaukee quickly turned sour after he replaced ex-Jay Daniel Norris, now no longer living in a van, in the ninth with a 6-0 lead. He hit Bryan Reynolds with a pitch, retired John Nogowski on a liner to centre, allowed a single to Jacob Stallings and a single to Gregory Polanco on an 0-2 pitch to load the bases.

Axford walked Ben Gamel on four straight pitches to force home a run. Brad Boxberger took over for Axford.

His previous major-league outing was Sept. 21, 2018 with the Dodgers when he threw 13 pitches, allowing two runs -- one earned -- on three hits.

Axford began preparing for this event by throwing in Burlington at the FieldHouse Pirates facility. His catcher “A net,” he said.

The turning point for Axford -- continue on a comeback trail or hang them up? -- was a conversation with Brewers Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker, who told him: “People don’t get it ... it’s the competition that we play for, that’s what is in your blood.”

And so Axford is back wearing a Canada uniform. He had 2/3 of a scoreless outing against the Cubs on Wednesday. Axford, who turns 40 on April 1, joins Scott Mathieson, 39 (Aldergrove, BC), Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC), Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Sask.), 37 and Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Que.), 34, are all free agents who have come out of retirement to pitch for their short-armed country.

There will not be any pitch restrictions on these five arms by big-league teams. Yet, age puts restrictions on all of us.

Play in the five-country Pool C begins Saturday with Canada getting a bye, meaning it is looking at four games in four days with one established major-league starter: Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) who goes against Great Britain on Sunday.

* * *

A sentence I never thought I’d hear: “Hold on a second … I’ll be right with you, I’m sending a Tweet.” _ Hall of Famer Larry Walker.

* * *

Nice hosts: When the Blue Jays played the Chicago Cubs at Sloan Park on Wednesday not all the Canuck hitters were allowed to use the batting cage. Whether it was the Cubs or the City of Mesa, someone is to blame. The word was no minor leaguers: only Freddie Freeman and Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) were allowed to hit in the cage.

* * *

Stand up son: Freddie Freeman said in the interview room about growing up in Southern California and how it felt like every time the Ducks played the Maple Leafs, or the Angels played the Blue Jays, “the Freeman family seemed to be at those games.” Freeman said “as a kid, you don’t really know what’s going on, you’re excited to go to a sporting event.

“When you get older, you see that it was always a Canadian team that we were going to see. It never left her, never left my parents, because everyone talked about my mom. My dad was born and raised (in Windsor, Ont.) as well. I think I was eight years old when we were at an Angels game against the Blue Jays. The Canadian National Anthem was playing, and I was eating popcorn. I was doing what I’m doing here, sitting. And it felt like the strongest person ever just lifted me up and I was just hanging there, it was my mom and dad telling me to stand up.”

Freeman said the biggest thing he notices about the clubhouse is the accent. “They all have a little accent to me. Obviously when I walk I’m from Southern California, born and raised in the United States.” He also told of a mound visit in an exhibition game where he gathered with 3B Abraham Toro (Longueuil, Que.), SS Otto Lopez (Montreal, Que.) and Edouard Julien (Quebec City, Que.). “They’re all speaking French so I didn’t really know what was going on during one of the pitching changes.”

* * *

The CEO arrives: Jason Dickson president and CEO of Baseball Canada made the rounds behind the batting practice, thanking each and every player for coming and putting on the Canada uniform.

Dickson (Chatham, N.B.) had one of his few major-league at-bats at Chase Field when the Anaheim Angels visited the Arizona Diamondbacks during inter-league play.

“The first pitch (from Bob Woolcott) was 99 mph, I decided not to swing,” Dickson said. Dickson wound up with the win a 10-5 victory as Dave Hollins hit two homers, as Matt Walbeck, Darin Erstad and Garret Anderson also went deep.

In his four season, Dickson was hitless in six at-bats, hut he does remember getting a single off Cubs’ Kevin Tapani in a spring game.

The favourite Dickson hitting story in the family is facing the San Diego Padres and former Dodger legend Fernando Valenzuela.

“Guys told me not to take it easy on him, how’s he’s a threat as a hitter,” Dickson said. “I went fastball, fastball and at 0-2 threw him a curve ball for strike three. Then, when I was up he did the same to me with a curveball that I thought was going behind my head.”

Dickson said his mother Anne Brickl, who grew up in London, Ont. loved the story since she was a Dodger fan.