Bad Choice or Bad Choice.

The Cardinals picked up a new pitcher last week from the Brewers in the person of former closer John Axford.  Stroll around the internet and you will find that the fans in Milwaukee have lost patience with the hard throwing right-hander, so maybe a change of scenery and a possible playoff appearance will help his motivation.  Cardinals fans also seemed a little bit skeptical of the move and thought the team should have made a bigger splash, or no splash at all.  Stark contrast, but that's the way the wind was blowing last week.  Being a Cardinals fan, I disregard the commentary on Axford's struggles during the past eighteen months and immediately searched out a few cool Axford cards.  Unfortunately I found that he has only one certified autograph were he is not wearing a goofy blanked out generic blue hat.  This one..... 

2013 Topps Tribute World Baseball Classic John Axford Autograph 

I was actually disappointed that I had to get a card from this set.  I actually thought long and hard about the Panini, but I could not pull the trigger on a non-licesenced card.  I am not against them, but I really do not like the blanked out hats and unis.  Real goofy.  So, at the same time I was avoiding the Panini the World Baseball Classic set has been notably absent from my collection this summer.  The absence of World Baseball Classic cards is not an accident.  I really do not like the event.  I know who won, but I did not watch a full game from the entire event.  I watched this cool fight.  Axford and Stubby Clapp both make an appearance.    

The event has gotten stale after its third time out and I am not sure why Topps felt the need to commemorate the event at all this year, let alone do it with a really high end set.  Needless to say, I would much rather have cards of the players featured in this set in their MLB uniforms then their national team uniforms, but in Axford's case I guess I will settle for what I can get.  Really, this card is the better of two pretty bad choices.