John Axford
John Berton Axford, nicknamed "Ax Man", is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Axford made his MLB debut in 2009 with the Brewers. He won the Rolaids Relief Man Award in 2011 after leading the National League in saves.
Amateur career
Raised in Port Dover, Ontario, Axford attended Assumption College School in nearby Brantford. Because the school did not have an interscholastic baseball program, he played for Port Dover Minor Baseball, then Team Ontario and Team Canada. His combined four-year totals with the three clubs were a 37–12 record, a 1.88 earned run average, 278 innings pitched, 432 strikeouts and 173 walks.The Seattle Mariners selected Axford in the seventh round of the 2001 Major League Baseball draft, but he accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Notre Dame instead. In 2002, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and returned to the league in 2003 to play for the Cotuit Kettleers. He was inactive during his junior year after undergoing Tommy John surgery in December 2003. Used as a starting pitcher in 26 of 36 games, his record in three seasons with the Fighting Irish was 14–6. Despite losing his scholarship as a redshirt senior in 2005, he still earned a bachelor's degree in film, television and theatre.
Axford was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 42nd round of the 2005 MLB draft. He spent the spring of 2006, his one remaining year of collegiate athletic eligibility, at Canisius College where he went 3–8, with a 5.01 earned run average in fourteen starts. After watching him in action with the Golden Griffins, the Reds declined to offer a contract. By that summer, he was pitching for the Melville Millionaires of the Western Major Baseball League. A nineteen-strikeout performance in a seven-inning contest caught the attention of the New York Yankees.
Professional career
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees signed Axford as a minor-league free agent on August 11, 2006.His 2007 campaign was divided between three Class A farm teams and the Triple A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, where he appeared in only one game. He had a combined 1-4 record in 27 games, and was released on December 14, 2007.
Milwaukee Brewers
After spending the winter working as a cell phone salesman for Telus in the Toronto area, he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers on March 4, 2008. A 5–10 campaign with a 4.55 ERA for the Brevard County Manatees was followed by an offseason employment as a bartender at an East Side Mario's location in Hamilton, Ontario.Used exclusively out of the bullpen in 2009, he improved to a combined 9–1 with the Manatees, Huntsville Stars and Nashville Sounds. He was called up to the Brewers on September 7, and made his major league debut eight nights later as the last Brewers pitcher in a 13–7 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. He surrendered an earned run, a hit and three walks in one inning pitched.
Axford started 2010 in Nashville before being promoted by the Brewers on May 15. With Trevor Hoffman struggling in save situations, Axford, despite having never been a closer in his career, was given the job, where he became a big success in the role and gained popularity with Brewers fans as he sported a handlebar mustache in many of his early appearances, evoking memories of legendary reliever Rollie Fingers. Axford finished his first full season with an 8–2 record, a 2.48 ERA, pitched in 50 games, was 24 out of 27 in save attempts, and struck out 76 batters in 58 innings pitched. He was named a relief pitcher on Baseball America's 2010 All-Rookie Team.
Axford went into 2011 as the Brewers closer and struggled early, blowing two saves in the first two weeks of the season, then went on to convert every single save opportunity the rest of the way. In a game against the Chicago Cubs on July 27, Axford converted his 26th consecutive save opportunity, breaking Doug Jones's Brewers franchise record. Axford was named Delivery Man of the Month Award winner for July 2011, in which he recorded 11 saves with a 2.57 ERA. On September 24, he set the Brewers franchise record for most saves in a single season, saving his 45th against the Florida Marlins. For the season he led the National League in saves, and was second in games finished, pitching innings with 86 strikeouts and 59 hits while going 2–2 with a 1.95 ERA. Axford was the first Brewers pitcher since Rollie Fingers to be a league leader in saves. He continued his success in the 2011 postseason, appearing in 6 playoff games and racking up 3 saves and a 1.29 ERA while striking out 9 batters in 7 innings pitched. Axford, however, blew his first save since the second week of the season in the decisive Game Five of the NLDS, but still got the win as the Brewers won in the 10th inning. On October 28, Axford was named the recipient of the 2011 Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year Award by the American Mustache Institute. Recognition of Axford's success in 2011 continued into the offseason, where he was ninth overall in voting for the NL Cy Young Award and 17th overall for the NL MVP award. He was nominated for and won several awards recognizing his success, including the NL Rolaids Relief Man, and the Canadian Tip O'Neill Award. He shared the award with Joey Votto, being the third time the Tip O'Neill Award had been shared.
Axford began 2012 with six straight saves, extending a streak to 49 consecutive save opportunities converted. This was the fourth-longest streak in MLB history. The streak ended on May 11, 2012, in a game against the Chicago Cubs. As it turned out, Axford's wife began going into labor with the birth of his second child that night, and he was unavailable to comment after the game. Instead, he left a handwritten note for journalists in his locker. On July 16, Axford gave up three runs in the top of the ninth to blow a 2–0 lead. Axford, however, was able to regain his control and was reinstated as the Brewers closer in the second half of the season. He managed to rebound enough to finish the 2012 season with 35 saves, which was still good enough for 6th in the National League, with a 4.67 ERA, plus a new career high in strikeouts in a season, striking out 93 batters in 69 innings pitched, averaging 12 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. On September 16, Axford recorded his 100th career save against the New York Mets.
On January 18, 2013, the Brewers announced they had avoided arbitration with Axford, signing him to a one-year contract worth $5 million. He pitched for the Canadian national baseball team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic before the season. In his first four appearances, he had an 0–2 record with 22.10 ERA and a blown save. He threw during the WBC, but only with the Brewers. The Brewers replaced Axford as their closer with Canadian-born Jim Henderson. He had a 4.45 ERA in 62 games for Milwaukee.