Maple Ridge slugger Tyler O’Neill’s Major League Baseball season came to a close when his St. Louis Cardinals were eliminated from post-season play on Oct. 6.
But it has been a year when the many fans from his home town, and from Langley where he played for the Blaze in the Premier Baseball League, have seen the 26-year-old fulfill his ample promise.
O’Neill batted .286 with 35 home runs, 80 RBI and 15 stolen bases this season. The sports stats website Fangraphs ranks him as the sixth-best outfielder in all of baseball. In the wild card game, he was batting third in the order.
O’Neill was named the winner of the September Player of the Month Award for the National League, after he hit .328 with 13 home runs, 30 RBI and 31 runs scored through September and October. He carried his team in a 17-game winning streak that saw them take the NL wild card berth.
It was his first player of the month honour.
Before this campaign, he had hit a combined 21 career homers, over parts of three seasons, and had yet to establish himself as an everyday player.
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