I wanted to mention that commenter Ryan Laughton has started a blog about Japanese sumo cards. There are a lot of parallels between vintage sumo cards and vintage baseball cards in Japan so I expect that this will be a useful reference in understanding how the older cards were produced and distributed. Ryan's already contributed interesting comments here about Yamakatsu and NST among other things so I look forward to seeing what he'll be coming up with at his blog.
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Parallel Universe
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2015 BBM Team Sets
I did something last year that I've never done before - I decided to get all of the pack based team sets that BBM issues for the 12 NPB teams. I felt that the flagship BBM sets were simply leaving too many players out and I wanted to get cards of as many players as possible. I also wanted to see how easily and how cheaply it could be done.
BBM streamlined the team sets to some extent in 2015. In previous years, each team set's base set could have between 81 and 126 cards and the size of the set could vary by team. For example, in 2014 the Marines set had only 81 cards but the Giants set had 117. But in 2015, all 12 sets had a base set size of 81 cards.
Each set contained cards of pretty much every player on the team's 70 man roster along with the team's manager. Most sets also contained at least one card for the team's mascot(s). Several sets had a team card/checklist as well. All sets also contained at least two subsets. Here's a breakdown of the cards in each team set:
BBM streamlined the team sets to some extent in 2015. In previous years, each team set's base set could have between 81 and 126 cards and the size of the set could vary by team. For example, in 2014 the Marines set had only 81 cards but the Giants set had 117. But in 2015, all 12 sets had a base set size of 81 cards.
Each set contained cards of pretty much every player on the team's 70 man roster along with the team's manager. Most sets also contained at least one card for the team's mascot(s). Several sets had a team card/checklist as well. All sets also contained at least two subsets. Here's a breakdown of the cards in each team set:
| Team | Player/Manager Cards | Mascot Cards | Checklist | Subsets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chiba Lotte Marines | 67 | 4 | 1 | Ageless Wonder (3), Real Steal (3), Foreign Impact (3) |
| Chunichi Dragons | 67 | 3 | 1 | Award Winner (1), Puzzle (6), Combination (3) |
| Fukuoka Softbank Hawks | 69 | 0 | 0 | Puzzle (3), Road To Record (3), Award Winner (4), Next Decade (1), 2014 Champs (1) |
| Hanshin Tigers | 68 | 1 | 0 | Reliable Pitching Staff (5), Dynamite Row (7) |
| Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 69 | 1 | 0 | Big Comeback (2), Shining Order (9) |
| Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters | 68 | 3 | 1 | Make History (3), Award Winner (3), Veteran's Comeback (3) |
| Orix Buffaloes | 69 | 2 | 0 | Dominators (4), High Standard (3), Big Boost (3) |
| Saitama Seibu Lions | 68 | 1 | 1 | Combination (3), Puzzle (6), Award Winner (2) |
| Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 68 | 3 | 1 | Puzzle (3), Calendar (6) |
| Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 68 | 3 | 1 | Puzzle (6), Combination (3) |
| Yokohama DeNA Baystars | 65 | 3 | 1 | Pitch, Hit & Run? (3), Puzzle (6), Combination (3) |
| Yomiuri Giants | 70 | 1 | 0 | Master Skill (3), Star-To-Be (7) |
There's a number of significant players whose only BBM cards this year were in the team sets rather than the flagship sets - Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Kenshin Kawakami, Kei Igawa, Fumiya Nishiguchi and Takashi Saitoh all come to mind. Here's an example card from each set showing a player who did not make the 1st Version set this year (and I think Mima is the only one to make the 2nd Version set):
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| 2015 BBM Marines #M51 |
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| 2015 BBM Dragons #D02 |
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| 2015 BBM Hawks #H46 |
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| @015 BBM Tigers #T67 |
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| 2015 BBM Carp #C03 |
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| 2015 BBM Fighters #F08 |
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| 2015 BBM Buffaloes #Bs15 |
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| 2015 BBM Lions #L57 |
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| 2015 BBM Eagles #E14 |
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| 2015 BBM Swallows #S68 |
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| 2015 BBM Baystars #DB37 |
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| 2015 BBM Giants #G56 |
As you can see, each team set had its own card design. Some of them are a little busier than I like in a card design but I don't think any of them are out and out ugly.
The sets were released over a five month period between March and July. An odd thing happened due to the schedule of the team set released - in June, the Fighters and Giants made a trade with Kenji Yano and Hideki Sunaga going to the Fighters for Toshiyuki Yanuki and Atsushi Kita. Because the Fighters set had already been released but the Giants set was released at least a month later, Yano and Sunaga don't appear in either set but Yanuki and Kita appear in both.
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| 2015 BBM Fighters #F62 and Giants #G69 |
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| 2015 BBM Fighters #F18 and Giants #G21 |
I was hoping to be able to pick up the sets without spending a lot of money but that presented some obstacles. I was planning on being able to buy multiple teams from the same sellers on Yahoo! Japan Auctions and try to minimize the proxy bidding fees from kuboTEN or JAUCE but I didn't see many opportunities for that. I ended up only getting the Carp and Eagles sets using a proxy bidder. Ryan was gracious enough (as always) to pick up sets for me both in stores and off YJA and he was able to find the remaining 10 sets. I hoped to keep the expenses down to roughly 1000 yen per set. Ryan found some great deals for me that made it almost seem possible but the last two sets (the Baystars and Giants) pretty much blew the budget - the Baystars set was around 1500 yen and the Giants set was 2000 yen. Total cost of all 12 sets is difficult to calculate as isolating the costs from the other sets Ryan found for me is close to impossible but I figure including the shipping to the US, the total amount I spent on the 12 sets was around $200.
Would I recommend doing this? If you want cards of almost everyone on a 70 man roster in Japan, this is the best (only) way to do it - unless you live near a card shop where you can pick up just the singles for the players who weren't in the flagship sets. For most people, I would probably recommend only buying the team set for their favorite team(s).
Will I do this again? Not sure yet. I think it will depend on how cheaply I can do it and how willing Ryan is to continue to find stuff for me. So far I have not exhausted Ryan's patience (and I am not viewing that as a challenge) so I will likely do this again.
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Card Of The Week January 10
I saw an Ebay auction a couple weeks back offering a couple 1977 NST cards of "Cleon Jones". I hadn't remembered that Cleon Jones had played in Japan but I been surprised before to discover someone had played in Japan briefly so I jumped at the auction - doing a "Buy-It-Now" on it and a couple other NST cards of gaijin players. Once I paid, I did a quick look up and realized that I had remembered correctly - Cleon Jones had never played in Japan. The cards were for Clarence Jones who had spent eight years in Japan - four with Nankai from 1970-73 and four with Kintetsu from 1974-77. I have several cards of Jones from recent BBM OB sets (Hawks 70th and 75th Anniversary sets, Kintetsu Memorial, Legendary Foreigners) but I didn't have any from when he was actually playing in Japan, so I didn't mind the mistake that much.
Here are the two cards, showing pictures that I suspect were taken in the same at bat.
Here are the two cards, showing pictures that I suspect were taken in the same at bat.
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| 1977 NST #223 |
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| 1977 NST #248 |
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2016 BBM The Ballpark Stories
The 2016 edition of BBM's annual "Historic Collection" set was released back at the end of November. This year's theme is "The Ballpark Stories" and it appears that each card commemorates an event that happened at a ballpark which sounds kind of obvious but bear with me for a minute. As usual for the "Historic Collection" set the base set contains 144 cards - 72 OB players and 72 active players. The cards are split evenly by franchise - six OB players and six active players per team (except that the Eagles only have the six active players - their OB players are from Kintetsu).
As I said before, each card commemorates an event that happened at a ballpark. The particular ballpark in question is listed on the front of the card in the lower left corner. For the OB players, the ballparks are old ballparks that have been abandoned by NPB teams - Korakuen, Kawasaki and Komazawa Stadiums in Kanto; Osaka, Fujidera and Nishinomiya Stadiums in Kansai; Heiwadai Stadium in Fukuoka and Hiroshima and Nagoya Stadiums. It looks like the back of each card describes some event that occurred at the ballpark (including the date in most cases) and as far as I can tell, the photo on the front is from that event. Some of the events included are Shigeo Nagashima's retirement, Sadaharu Oh's 756th home run, Isao Harimoto's 3000th hit, Sachio Kinugasa passing Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak, no-hitters by Tsuneo Horiuchi, Shinichi Kondoh, Yoshinori Satoh and Naoki Takahashi, several Nippon Series clinchers, Keishi Suzuki's 300th win and many other milestones. For a change, all the OB players in the set are actually retired - there are no MLB players in the set at all (which makes sense since the only park that was still around when most of the current Japanese MLB players was Hiroshima - although Ichiro played in Fujidera Stadium).
For the active players, the ballparks are all alternate parks to the home parks for the NPB teams such as the ballparks in Matsuyama, Kobe, Niigata and Kobe. There are 25 of these ballparks represented in all. Each card shows the player in a game from the 2015 season at one of these alternate parks. The back of the card appears to describe how the player did in the game (and mentions the date of the game). Some of games are represented by more than one player - for example there was a game played on April 11 in Kagoshima between the Fighters and Hawks that's covered by three different cards - Tadashi Settsu and Akira Nakamura of the Hawks and Takuya Nakashima of the Fighters. None of the "events" on these cards are particularly earth shattering as far as I can tell - no records being set or milestones being reached. The active players in the set include Kenta Maeda, Shohei Ohtani, Takuya Nakamura, Shogo Akiyama, Tetsuto Yamada, Yuki Yanagita and Kazuo Matsui.
I created a spreadsheet of all the cards showing which ballparks and events are in the set (or at least the ones I could figure out). The alternate ballparks are identified by the name listed on the box score for the game on NPB's website.
Here's some example cards:
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| #054 Koji Yamamoto in the Carp's Central League clinching game at Korakuen Stadium 10/15/75 |
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| #062 Hiromu Matsuoka in the Swallows' Nippon Series clincher at Korakuen Stadium on 10/22/78 |
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| #078 Yoshinori Satoh's no-hitter at Fujidera Stadium on 8/26/95 |
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| #019 Atsushi Nohmi at Toyama on 6/24/15 |
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| #107 Sho Nakata at Asahikawa on 6/24/15 |
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| #131 Ernesto Mejia at Kobe on 6/20/15 |
You can see all the cards here at Jambalaya.
The set has two 12 card insert sets associated with it - "Legend Heroes" and "Active Heroes". The seller I bought the cards from on Yahoo! Japan Auctions included three of the "Active Heroes" cards with my set. Each of these cards shows the player in action at an alternate ballpark although not necessarily the one he was depicted in on his base set card. For example this card of Yoshio Itoi shows him at Yamagata (I think) while his base set card shows him in Kyoto:
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| #AH07 |
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| Back of #AH07 |
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2016 BBM Dragons 80th Anniversary
The Chunichi Dragons are celebrating their 80th Anniversary in 2016 and like the Giants in 2014 and the Tigers last year, BBM has issued a baseball card set to commemorate the milestone. BBM had previously issued sets for the Dragons 70th Anniversary in 2006 and 75th in 2011 so I didn't really expect anything new from this set when it was announced.
And I wasn't particularly surprised at what I saw once the set came out. BBM appears to have exerted the least amount of effort in releasing this set. The base set contains 81 cards - all of either current or former Dragons players. There are no subsets. Most of the Dragons stars from the past 50 years or so are included such as Morimichi Takagi, Hiroshi Gondoh, Kenichi Yazawa, Yasushi Tao, Masaru Uno, Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, Takeshi Yamazaki and Hirokazu Ibata. Notable foreign players include Gene Martin, Ken Macha, Tyrone Woods and Leo Gomez. There are around 18 or so cards of players who played for the Dragons in 2015 including Masa Yamamoto, Motonobu Takahashi, Kazuhiro Wada, Michihiro Ogasawara, Masahiro Araki and Masahiko Morino. The bulk of the players in the set debuted with the Dragons in the 1960's or later - only six players represent the years between 1936 and 1959 - Michio Nishizawa, Shigeru Sugishita, Toshio Naka, Toru Mori, Yasuhiko Kawamura and Shinichi Etoh - and only two of those players (Nishizawa and Sugishita) were members of the 1954 Nippon Series Championship team (one of only two in Dragons history).
As you'd expect, there's a great deal of redundancy between this set and the previous two Dragons Anniversary sets. There are only six retired players (well, retired prior to 2015) who appear in the set who did not appear in the other sets. The most significant of these players is Senichi Hoshino who was the biggest name left out of the prior sets. The others were Hiroshi Shintaku, Toshio Tanakura, Tadashi Sugimoto, Kazuyuki Oda and Eddie Gaillard.
The biggest names I see missing are Hiromitsu Ochiai and Wally Yonamine. Ochiai is no surprise as he has not appeared on a baseball card in over four years now. Yonamine managed the Dragons to a pennant in 1974 (their first in 20 years) and was included in both the previous sets but is a no-show here. Most of the other notable omissions are all pre-1960 players such as Makoto Kozuru, Eiji Bando and Shunichi Amachi (manager of the 1954 Champs). There's a couple guys (like Ogasawara) that I question why they were included in the set as they played only a short period of time with the Dragons.
Here are some sample cards:
The set also has a 15 card insert set associated with it called "Dragons Heroes" that features a number of Dragons greats - Sugishita, Takagi, Hoshino, Yasunori Ohshima, Yazawa, Takamasa Suzuki, Tao, Uno, Tatsuo Komatsu, Genji Kaku, Yamamoto, Yamasaki, Tatsunami, Kenshin Kawakami, and Tanishige. I normally wouldn't have gotten these but I was having difficulty locating a set on Yahoo! Japan Auctions and I ended up way overpaying for a set that included this insert set.
As a Dragon fan, I really wanted to like this set but I really can't recommend it. The two previous Dragons Anniversary sets are much better.
All the cards can be seen at Jambalaya (as usual).
And I wasn't particularly surprised at what I saw once the set came out. BBM appears to have exerted the least amount of effort in releasing this set. The base set contains 81 cards - all of either current or former Dragons players. There are no subsets. Most of the Dragons stars from the past 50 years or so are included such as Morimichi Takagi, Hiroshi Gondoh, Kenichi Yazawa, Yasushi Tao, Masaru Uno, Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, Takeshi Yamazaki and Hirokazu Ibata. Notable foreign players include Gene Martin, Ken Macha, Tyrone Woods and Leo Gomez. There are around 18 or so cards of players who played for the Dragons in 2015 including Masa Yamamoto, Motonobu Takahashi, Kazuhiro Wada, Michihiro Ogasawara, Masahiro Araki and Masahiko Morino. The bulk of the players in the set debuted with the Dragons in the 1960's or later - only six players represent the years between 1936 and 1959 - Michio Nishizawa, Shigeru Sugishita, Toshio Naka, Toru Mori, Yasuhiko Kawamura and Shinichi Etoh - and only two of those players (Nishizawa and Sugishita) were members of the 1954 Nippon Series Championship team (one of only two in Dragons history).
As you'd expect, there's a great deal of redundancy between this set and the previous two Dragons Anniversary sets. There are only six retired players (well, retired prior to 2015) who appear in the set who did not appear in the other sets. The most significant of these players is Senichi Hoshino who was the biggest name left out of the prior sets. The others were Hiroshi Shintaku, Toshio Tanakura, Tadashi Sugimoto, Kazuyuki Oda and Eddie Gaillard.
The biggest names I see missing are Hiromitsu Ochiai and Wally Yonamine. Ochiai is no surprise as he has not appeared on a baseball card in over four years now. Yonamine managed the Dragons to a pennant in 1974 (their first in 20 years) and was included in both the previous sets but is a no-show here. Most of the other notable omissions are all pre-1960 players such as Makoto Kozuru, Eiji Bando and Shunichi Amachi (manager of the 1954 Champs). There's a couple guys (like Ogasawara) that I question why they were included in the set as they played only a short period of time with the Dragons.
Here are some sample cards:
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| #01 |
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| #06 |
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| #14 |
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| #24 |
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| #45 |
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| #78 |
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| #DH07 |
All the cards can be seen at Jambalaya (as usual).
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New Stuff
Some new sets that have either just been released or are coming out soon.
Let's start with BBM. They have two sets coming out in the next few weeks. On January 29th they will be releasing the annual box set for players who retired at the end of the previous season - I end up calling this the "Farewell" set but it's real name translates as something like "Regret At Parting Ball People". This year's edition contains 40 cards - 39 cards in the base set plus one "special" card that could be an authentic autograph or it could be a facsimile autograph parallel of one of the base set cards. In early February BBM will release a 25 card box set dedicated to Yoshinobu Takahashi who retired at the end of last season to take the Giants managerial job. The box will be called "24 Karat" and will contain a 24 card base set (Takahashi's uniform number was 24) and one "special" card which will be a memorabilia card or a parallel card.
On February 16, Sports Graphic Number will release their latest set dedicated to a single player. This time it's Hiroki Kuroda. This will be a pack based set with a 45 card base set, an 18 card insert ("rare") set and all sorts of possible special cards - autograph, memorabilia, photograph, die cut parallels, etc.
I was quite surprised to find that Calbee snuck a set out this past weekend. Typically Calbee's first set each year comes out in March. But this year they've issued a small (36 card - 3 per team) set entitled "2015 All Stars". The name is a bit of a misnomer as the players included in the set are not necessarily players who made the All Star teams last summer. All the cards look like the "Star" cards that are inserts for the standard Calbee sets - there's even a "gold signature" parallel version of the cards. As usual, Jambalaya has all the cards on line.
I actually got a heads up and some photos from this set from a reader named Michael who's currently on a business trip up in Hokkaido. He said that the cards are being issued in the traditional manner with chips but only one to a pack rather than the two that Calbee's been doing the past 10 years or so. Here's the pictures he passed along to me:
Thanks to Michael for the pictures and information!
Let's start with BBM. They have two sets coming out in the next few weeks. On January 29th they will be releasing the annual box set for players who retired at the end of the previous season - I end up calling this the "Farewell" set but it's real name translates as something like "Regret At Parting Ball People". This year's edition contains 40 cards - 39 cards in the base set plus one "special" card that could be an authentic autograph or it could be a facsimile autograph parallel of one of the base set cards. In early February BBM will release a 25 card box set dedicated to Yoshinobu Takahashi who retired at the end of last season to take the Giants managerial job. The box will be called "24 Karat" and will contain a 24 card base set (Takahashi's uniform number was 24) and one "special" card which will be a memorabilia card or a parallel card.
On February 16, Sports Graphic Number will release their latest set dedicated to a single player. This time it's Hiroki Kuroda. This will be a pack based set with a 45 card base set, an 18 card insert ("rare") set and all sorts of possible special cards - autograph, memorabilia, photograph, die cut parallels, etc.
I was quite surprised to find that Calbee snuck a set out this past weekend. Typically Calbee's first set each year comes out in March. But this year they've issued a small (36 card - 3 per team) set entitled "2015 All Stars". The name is a bit of a misnomer as the players included in the set are not necessarily players who made the All Star teams last summer. All the cards look like the "Star" cards that are inserts for the standard Calbee sets - there's even a "gold signature" parallel version of the cards. As usual, Jambalaya has all the cards on line.
I actually got a heads up and some photos from this set from a reader named Michael who's currently on a business trip up in Hokkaido. He said that the cards are being issued in the traditional manner with chips but only one to a pack rather than the two that Calbee's been doing the past 10 years or so. Here's the pictures he passed along to me:
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| Chip bag |
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| Pack of cards on the chip bag |
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| #AS-25 |
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| Back of #AS-25 |
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| #AS-19 (Gold Signature Parallel) |
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| Back of #AS-19 |
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Card Of The Week January 17
The Meikyukai held a baseball game at Fukuoka Dome* on January 1st. NPB Reddit tweeted out a link to a video of the ceremonial first pitch of the game - Sadaharu Oh pitching to Shigeo Nagashima (with Atsuya Furuta catching):
*Yeah I know the Dome has a corporate name but I haven't gotten a check yet from the company that owns the naming rights so I see no reason I should call it by that name.
Nagashima suffered a stroke back in 2004 and has pretty much lost use of much of his right side - I don't think I've seen a video or picture of him in the last 12 years where his right hand isn't tucked inside his pocket. But even one handed he still manages to make contact with a pitch.
Here's a card showing Oh and Nagashima when they faced each other as rival managers in the 2000 Nippon Series:
*Yeah I know the Dome has a corporate name but I haven't gotten a check yet from the company that owns the naming rights so I see no reason I should call it by that name.
Nagashima suffered a stroke back in 2004 and has pretty much lost use of much of his right side - I don't think I've seen a video or picture of him in the last 12 years where his right hand isn't tucked inside his pocket. But even one handed he still manages to make contact with a pitch.
Here's a card showing Oh and Nagashima when they faced each other as rival managers in the 2000 Nippon Series:
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| 2002 BBM Giants #G114 |
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Seung-Hwan Oh of the St Louis Cardinals
Last week the Cardinals signed former Samsung Lions and Hanshin Tigers closer Seung-Hwan Oh to a one year contract. Oh spent nine years in Korea with Samsung before moving to NPB and the Tigers in 2014. He had 277 saves in Korea and another 80 in his two years in Japan.
There aren't many known cards of him from Korea. The only card I know of for him is from the 2010 "KBO game" set:
While he pitched in both the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics, the only card commemorating his stint with the Korean National Team was from the 2009 Konami WBC Heroes set.
He's had a number of cards in Japan, however. He appears in both the 1st and 2nd Version sets from BBM for both 2014 and 2015 as well as the Tigers team sets (both the pack based sets and some of the assorted box sets). He's also in the 2015 Genesis set and the last two "Historic Collection" sets ("Memories of Uniform" and "The Ballpark Stories"). He also has a card in each of the 2014 and 2015 Calbee sets. As usual this is not a comprehensive list but just some of the highlights. Here's a handful of his Japanese cards:
There aren't many known cards of him from Korea. The only card I know of for him is from the 2010 "KBO game" set:
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| 2010 KBO #AS-004 |
While he pitched in both the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics, the only card commemorating his stint with the Korean National Team was from the 2009 Konami WBC Heroes set.
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| 2009 Konami WBC Heroes #W09R118 |
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| 2014 BBM 1st Version #392 |
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| 2014 Calbee #137 |
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| 2015 BBM 1st Version #195 |
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| 2016 BBM The Ballpark Stories #020 |
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2016 Hall Of Fame Class
The new Hall Of Fame inductees were announced today. Former Giants pitcher Masaki Saitoh and former Lions, Hawks, Giants and Baystars pitcher Kimiyasu Kudoh were both elected in the "Players Division" vote. Orions star from the 1950's and 60's Kihachi Enomoto was elected in the "Expert Division" while the "Special Selection" Committee elected two executives - Takizo Matsumoto and Masataka Yamanaka.
By the way Jim Allen recently wrote a post on Enomoto and why he deserved to be elected.
Here are some cards of the new inductees. I've done posts previously for Kudoh (when he retired) and Enomoto (when he passed away).
By the way Jim Allen recently wrote a post on Enomoto and why he deserved to be elected.
Here are some cards of the new inductees. I've done posts previously for Kudoh (when he retired) and Enomoto (when he passed away).
Masaki Saitoh
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| 1987 Takara Giants #41 |
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| 2001 BBM #30 |
Kimiyasu Kudoh
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| 1982 Takara Lions #47 |
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| 2009 BBM Baystars #YB28 |
Kihachi Enomoto
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| 1958 JCM 68 |
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| 2014 BBM 80th Anniversary Batters Edition #80 |
Masatake Yamanaka
I want to point out here that Yamanaka never played professional baseball but the 48 wins he earned pitching for Hosei in the late 1960's is the career record for the Tokyo Big Six league and he was included in BBM's 2011 Legend Of The Tokyo Big Six set. I'm pretty confident in saying that this is the only baseball card he has ever had.
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| 2011 BBM Legend Of The Tokyo Big Six #105 |
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More Memories Of Uniform - Fighters Edition
I really hadn't intended to take a six month break from doing these posts but life and work have been keeping me pretty busy lately (and 22 retiring players that I felt were worth doing posts on kept me pretty busy as well). I'll try to get back to doing these somewhat regularly (although they are quite time consuming).
The team that is now the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters was founded after the war as the Senators. It was founded by Saburo Yokozawa who had managed a pre-war team called the Tokyo Senators from 1936-37 but this team is not considered a continuation of that team (technically that team is now the Saitama Seibu Lions but officially that team is simply defunct). The team played the 1946 season as the Senators, then was sold to Tokyu who renamed the team the Tokyu Flyers. There was a brief merger in 1948 with the Daiei club which resulted in another name change (the Kyuei Flyers) for that season before Daiei "unmerged" with them to buy the Kinsei Stars and the team name reverted to the Tokyu Flyers. The team was sold to Toei in 1954 and renamed the Toei Stars. In 1973 the team was sold to the Nittaku Home real estate company and renamed the Nittaku Home Flyers. Nittaku Home would only own the team that one year, selling out to Nippon-Ham at the end of the season. The new name for the team starting in 1974 was the Nippon-Ham Fighters. After sharing first Korakuen Stadium and later the Tokyo Dome with the Yomiuri Giants for 40 years, the team moved to Sapporo in 2004 and changed their name to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
As I did for the earlier posts I am using The History Of Uniform and Professional Baseball Uniforms Encyclopedia 1936-2013 as my primary sources as well as Yakyu Baka's Uniform posts.
1946
1947 (2 different)
1948
1948-49 (2 different)
1949 (3 different)
1950 (2 different)
1951-53 Home
1951-53 Away
1953-60 Home
1953-60 Away
1961-67 Home
1961-67 Away
1967 Away Alternate
1968 Home
1968 Away
1969-71 Home
1969-71 Away
1972 Home
1972 Away
1973 Home
1973 Away
1973 Alternate (7 different)
1974 Home
1974 Away
1974-78 Home
1974-78 Away
1979-81 Home
1979-81 Away
1982-87 Home
1982-87 Away
1988-92 Home
1988-92 Away
1993-2003 Home
1993-2003 Away
2004-10 Home
2004-10 Away
2004-10 Spring Training
2005 Throwback
2007 Hokkaido
2008 Hokkaido
2009 Hokkaido
2010 Hokkaido
2011- Home
2011- Away
2011- Spring Training
2012 Alternate
2013 Hokkaido
2014 Hokkaido
2014 Throwback
2015 Hokkaido
2015 Throwback
Notes:
This one was a bit of a challenge as BBM has only done one OB team set for the Fighters and it was to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their move to Hokkaido so it wasn't anything near comprehensive. I had been hoping for a 70th Anniversary set last year but it didn't happen. BBM has had a handful of OB cards that depict players from the 1947-53 Tokyu and Kyuei Flyers but most of them don't show off the uniform very well so I didn't use them.
There are some subtle differences between uniforms that might not be obvious (or visible). For example, the 1979-81 uniforms differ from the 1974-78 uniforms in that they have belts and the player's name on the back. The 1982-87 uniforms only differ from the 1988-92 uniforms because of the hats - HOU treats 1982-92 as one uniform but PBUE splits them into two (which is what I went with).
I have only four cards showing members of the Nittaku Home Flyers and two of them are in this post. The other two commemorate Naoki Takahashi's no-hitter and show the home uniform.
One interesting tidbit of trivia - the 1946 team wore "hand-me-down" uniforms from the 1936 Hankyu team.
This is the only team so far that I've seen have a "spring training" uniform identified in PBUE.
The team that is now the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters was founded after the war as the Senators. It was founded by Saburo Yokozawa who had managed a pre-war team called the Tokyo Senators from 1936-37 but this team is not considered a continuation of that team (technically that team is now the Saitama Seibu Lions but officially that team is simply defunct). The team played the 1946 season as the Senators, then was sold to Tokyu who renamed the team the Tokyu Flyers. There was a brief merger in 1948 with the Daiei club which resulted in another name change (the Kyuei Flyers) for that season before Daiei "unmerged" with them to buy the Kinsei Stars and the team name reverted to the Tokyu Flyers. The team was sold to Toei in 1954 and renamed the Toei Stars. In 1973 the team was sold to the Nittaku Home real estate company and renamed the Nittaku Home Flyers. Nittaku Home would only own the team that one year, selling out to Nippon-Ham at the end of the season. The new name for the team starting in 1974 was the Nippon-Ham Fighters. After sharing first Korakuen Stadium and later the Tokyo Dome with the Yomiuri Giants for 40 years, the team moved to Sapporo in 2004 and changed their name to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
As I did for the earlier posts I am using The History Of Uniform and Professional Baseball Uniforms Encyclopedia 1936-2013 as my primary sources as well as Yakyu Baka's Uniform posts.
1946
 |
| 2014 BBM 80th Anniversary Batters Edition #09 |
1947 (2 different)
 |
| 1947 JBR 36 |
1948
1948-49 (2 different)
1949 (3 different)
 |
| 2005 BBM Glorious Stars #015 |
 |
| ~1949 Uncatalogued Bromide |
1950 (2 different)
 |
| 1950 JBR 9 |
1951-53 Home
1951-53 Away
1953-60 Home
 |
| 2016 BBM The Ballpark Stories #097 |
1953-60 Away
 |
| 2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #107 |
1961-67 Home
 |
| 1967 Kabaya-Leaf #409 |
1961-67 Away
 |
| 2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #056 |
1967 Away Alternate
1968 Home
1968 Away
 |
| 2007 BBM Draft Story #021 |
1969-71 Home
 |
| 2000 BBM 20th Century Best 9 #T-03 |
1969-71 Away
1972 Home
 |
| 2014 BBM Classic #090 |
1972 Away
 |
| 2008 BBM Back To The 70's #054 |
1973 Home
 |
| 2013 Epoch Rookie Of The Year #29 |
1973 Away
1973 Alternate (7 different)
 |
| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #097 |
1974 Home
 |
| 2008 BBM Back To The 70's #020 |
1974 Away
 |
| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #098 |
1974-78 Home
 |
| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #099 |
1974-78 Away
 |
| 1977 Calbee #148 |
1979-81 Home
 |
| 1980 Calbee #215 |
1979-81 Away
 |
| 2008 BBM Back To The 70's #055 |
1982-87 Home
 |
| 1983 Calbee #253 |
1982-87 Away
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| 1983 Calbee #560 |
1988-92 Home
 |
| 1990 Calbee #23 |
1988-92 Away
 |
| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #100 |
1993-2003 Home
 |
| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #101 |
1993-2003 Away
 |
| 1997 BBM #75 |
2004-10 Home
 |
| 2007 BBM 2nd Version #513 |
2004-10 Away
 |
| 2006 BBM 2nd Version #511 |
2004-10 Spring Training
 |
| 2004 BBM 1st Version #150 |
2005 Throwback
 |
| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #102 |
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| 2014 BBM WE LOVE HOKKAIDO #08 |
2008 Hokkaido
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| 2014 BBM WE LOVE HOKKAIDO #06 |
2009 Hokkaido
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| 2014 BBM WE LOVE HOKKAIDO #18 |
2010 Hokkaido
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| 2014 BBM WE LOVE HOKKAIDO #21 |
2011- Home
 |
| 2014 BBM 2nd Version #535 |
2011- Away
 |
| 2013 BBM 2nd Version #561 |
2011- Spring Training
 |
| 2012 BBM 1st Version #050 |
2012 Alternate
2013 Hokkaido
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| 2014 BBM WE LOVE HOKKAIDO #01 |
2014 Hokkaido
2014 Throwback
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| 2015 BBM Memories Of Uniform #105 |
2015 Hokkaido
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| 2016 BBM The Ballpark Stories #105 |
Notes:
This one was a bit of a challenge as BBM has only done one OB team set for the Fighters and it was to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their move to Hokkaido so it wasn't anything near comprehensive. I had been hoping for a 70th Anniversary set last year but it didn't happen. BBM has had a handful of OB cards that depict players from the 1947-53 Tokyu and Kyuei Flyers but most of them don't show off the uniform very well so I didn't use them.
There are some subtle differences between uniforms that might not be obvious (or visible). For example, the 1979-81 uniforms differ from the 1974-78 uniforms in that they have belts and the player's name on the back. The 1982-87 uniforms only differ from the 1988-92 uniforms because of the hats - HOU treats 1982-92 as one uniform but PBUE splits them into two (which is what I went with).
I have only four cards showing members of the Nittaku Home Flyers and two of them are in this post. The other two commemorate Naoki Takahashi's no-hitter and show the home uniform.
One interesting tidbit of trivia - the 1946 team wore "hand-me-down" uniforms from the 1936 Hankyu team.
This is the only team so far that I've seen have a "spring training" uniform identified in PBUE.
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Card Of The Week January 24
Spent the day digging out from a record snow fall. Makes me think of warm places like this:
Not sure of where or when this is - I figure it's somewhere in Arizona during the 1980's.
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| 2004 BBM Tigers #T95 |
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Spring Training In Arizona
There has been a lot of speculation over the last few years about when Shohei Ohtani will be coming to North America. I can answer that question - he's coming this week! Of course, he's going back to Japan a couple weeks later...
Last spring, the Fighters announced that they would be holding the first part of their 2016 Spring Training in Peoria, Arizona. This is not the first time that an NPB team has trained in the US although I can't remember that last time it happened.
Details have been released over the last month on the Fighters website including a schedule of events and a list of players attending the camp. The Fighters will be at the Padres facilities at the Peoria Sports Complex from February 1st to the 15th. They will play intrasquad games on the 6th and 14th and games against KBO teams on the 8th (Lotte Giants), 10th (Lotte again) and 13th (NC Dinos). There are workouts scheduled for all other days except the 5th and 11th. I think workouts will start around 9:45 each day (including the days that there are games). As far as I know, all events are open to the public although there is probably an admission charge to the big stadium for the games against the KBO teams.
I've translated the roster of the players and coaches the Fighters are sending to Peoria. This obviously is a great opportunity to get autographs of Japanese players.
As you may have guessed from the Fighters' opponents in their spring training games, there are several KBO teams training in Arizona as well. From what I've been able to figure out from looking at MyKBO.net, team websites and asking questions on the MyKBO.net forum on Facebook, there are six KBO teams training in Arizona (and they are already there as they started in mid-January). The Lotte Giants are using the Mariners facilities at the Peoria Sports Complex. The LG Twins are at the Dodger's facilities at the Camelback Ranch in Glendale. The KIA Tigers are using the Diamondbacks spring training quarters at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. The Nexen Heroes are Surprise but I don't know if they are using the Royals or the Rangers facilities (both are at the same stadium complex). The KT Wiz and NC Dinos are both training in the Tucson area (everyone else is in the greater Phoenix area). NC is at Reid Park but I haven't been able to figure out where KT is training. All the teams will be there through at least the first week of February - you can see details for each team's schedule here.
The SK Wyverns are currently training in Florida but I do not know any details of where they are. NC and KT are doing the second part of their spring training in the Los Angeles area but I don't know where they will be doing that or what the time frame for it is.
On a personal note, I will be in Arizona for work in early February and I'm hoping to make it over to Peoria to see the Fighters as well as check out some of the KBO teams at their training. So hopefully there will be some future posts with pictures.
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Card Of The Week January 31
Hey everybody, let's hike up our pants...
Kimiyasu Kudoh has gotten into the spirit of things:
Kimiyasu Kudoh has gotten into the spirit of things:
 |
| 1988 JBR 22 |
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Card Of The Week February 7
Kenta Maeda has an elaborate stretching routine that he does both before games and between innings. It's called the MaeKen Taiso:
It is well known enough that it gets copied by mascots:
as well as other players like Hayato Sakamoto (at an All Star game at Seibu Dome):
It has also made a baseball card at least once:
It will be interesting to see if Maeda will still do the stretching between innings now that he's with the Dodgers.
It is well known enough that it gets copied by mascots:
as well as other players like Hayato Sakamoto (at an All Star game at Seibu Dome):
It has also made a baseball card at least once:
 |
| 2014 Calbee #228 |
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Four New Sets From Four Different Companies
A couple new sets have been announced recently from a couple different companies.
- BBM is releasing their annual Rookie Edition set next week. This is a pack based set that has 129 cards in the base set - 117 cards for the 2016 draft picks, two cards that show all the draft picks and 12 "Then & Now" cards. There are two insert sets - a 12 card "Next Generation" set and a two card "Rookie Of The Year" set. There will also be facsimile parallel versions of the draft pick cards and the usual assorted autographed cards - all apparently of OB players.
- Epoch is releasing yet another ultra high end set in conjunction with the OB Club. This one is called "Sayanora Home Run" and it's being sold in boxes of five cards for 16,200 yen (~$130). Each box contains five cards - 2 cards from the base set, a "hologram" signed card (that I think is a parallel to the base set) and two autographed cards. There are 27 cards in the base set. The set appears to celebrate famous walk-off home runs, including Yutaka Enatsu's that ended the extra inning no-hitter he threw in 1973. The set will be out on March 19th.
- There is an odd set for the Fighters that is being released by a company that I think is called AI. It features nine members of the Fighters in street clothes rather than their uniforms. It's a pack based set with 57 cards in the base set, 18 "special" cards and two "rare" cards - I don't think that in this case the "special" cards are necessarily autograph or memorabilia cards. The set will be released on April 23rd.
- The latest KBO set was released last month. It's called the 2015-16 Gold Version set and looks very similar to last year's Blue Edition. I haven't seen an English translation of the set information but it looks like there's a total of 327 possible cards in the set although only about 100 or so are not short prints. There are 10 extremely rare (1 of 1) "Super Book" cards that feature both an autograph and a piece of memorabila (patch?) for a player. There are 14 die cut "Players Choice Award" cards that feature autographs. There are 40 different memorabilia cards - 10 patch cards, 10 dual jersey cards (jerseys from two different players on the card) and 20 jersey cards - along with 100 autograph cards. There are 18 cards that I think are some sort of "Record Holder" cards that I think are short printed. Each card is numbered to either 60, 200 or 500. There are 45 "Top Ranker" (essentially Leader) cards and 50 "normal" cards (which have a "gold" parallel version). The set is available via Gmarket. I used this listing to gather the information shared here (which may not be 100% accurate).
- BBM is releasing their annual Rookie Edition set next week. This is a pack based set that has 129 cards in the base set - 117 cards for the 2016 draft picks, two cards that show all the draft picks and 12 "Then & Now" cards. There are two insert sets - a 12 card "Next Generation" set and a two card "Rookie Of The Year" set. There will also be facsimile parallel versions of the draft pick cards and the usual assorted autographed cards - all apparently of OB players.
- Epoch is releasing yet another ultra high end set in conjunction with the OB Club. This one is called "Sayanora Home Run" and it's being sold in boxes of five cards for 16,200 yen (~$130). Each box contains five cards - 2 cards from the base set, a "hologram" signed card (that I think is a parallel to the base set) and two autographed cards. There are 27 cards in the base set. The set appears to celebrate famous walk-off home runs, including Yutaka Enatsu's that ended the extra inning no-hitter he threw in 1973. The set will be out on March 19th.
- There is an odd set for the Fighters that is being released by a company that I think is called AI. It features nine members of the Fighters in street clothes rather than their uniforms. It's a pack based set with 57 cards in the base set, 18 "special" cards and two "rare" cards - I don't think that in this case the "special" cards are necessarily autograph or memorabilia cards. The set will be released on April 23rd.
- The latest KBO set was released last month. It's called the 2015-16 Gold Version set and looks very similar to last year's Blue Edition. I haven't seen an English translation of the set information but it looks like there's a total of 327 possible cards in the set although only about 100 or so are not short prints. There are 10 extremely rare (1 of 1) "Super Book" cards that feature both an autograph and a piece of memorabila (patch?) for a player. There are 14 die cut "Players Choice Award" cards that feature autographs. There are 40 different memorabilia cards - 10 patch cards, 10 dual jersey cards (jerseys from two different players on the card) and 20 jersey cards - along with 100 autograph cards. There are 18 cards that I think are some sort of "Record Holder" cards that I think are short printed. Each card is numbered to either 60, 200 or 500. There are 45 "Top Ranker" (essentially Leader) cards and 50 "normal" cards (which have a "gold" parallel version). The set is available via Gmarket. I used this listing to gather the information shared here (which may not be 100% accurate).
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Sports Card Magazine #115
I'm home after over two weeks in Arizona and of course I'm way behind on everything. I've got a bunch of posts that I'd like to do in the next few days (including some items from Arizona - one of which you're probably expecting already) but I thought I'd start off with something relatively simple - the latest issue of Sports Card Magazine.
SCM #115 was published on January 27th and my copy showed up here at the house on January 29th. (Unfortunately I had left for Arizona on the 27th so I didn't see it until I got home this week.) Like issue #109 that came out this time last year, the cover story is about the upcoming Rookie Edition set. (The issue that comes out every January appears to always be for the Rookie Edition set.)
In the color section of the magazine there's a three page interview with Shun Takayama, formerly of Meiji University and now with the Tigers and a two page preview of the Rookie Edition set. There's also a two page ad for Rookie Edition as well as a two page ad for the new Sumo set, single page ads for the new Japan National Football Team, True Heart (Women's Wrestling) and Chess On Ice (Curling) sets and half page ads for the new (relatively) Spirit Of Legend, Fighting Spirit (Boxing), Farewell (Retirement) and 24 Karat (Yoshinobu Takahashi) box sets.
The newsprint section has a two page interview with wrestler Fairy Nihonbashi and a four page interview with somebody that looks like it might be a review of the cards issued in 2015. There's also the almost every issue competition where four collectors do box breaks of a recent issue and compare their hits - this time around it's the Real Venus set. The "old card" checklists this month are for sumo issues.
The "best" cards of the month are:
Best Card Of This Month: 2015 BBM 25th Anniversary Yoshinobu Takahashi/Hideki Matsui jersey card
Best Item Of This Month: 2015 BBM Real Venus box
Hot Card Lists
Rookies:
1. 2013 BBM 1st Version Shohei Ohtani (183)
2. 2015 BBM 1st Version Yasuaki Yamasaki (#291)
3. 2015 BBM 1st Version Takayoshi Noma (#237)
4. 2015 BBM 1st Version Hayato Takagi (#188)
5. 2015 BBM 1st Version Tomohiro Anraku (#156)
6. 2015 BBM 1st Version Issei Endoh (#268)
7. 2015 BBM 1st Version Daiki Asama (#075)
8. 2015 BBM 1st Version Shogo Nakamura (#102)9. 2015 BBM 1st Version Kazuma Okamoto (#186)
10. 2011 BBM 1st Version Tetsuya Yamada (#265)
Autograph & Memorabilia:
1. 2015 BBM 25th Anniversary Shohei Ohtani Autograph card
2. 2015 BBM Japan Rugby Top League Ayumu Goromaru Autograph card
3. 2015 BBM Genesis Shohei Ohtani Autograph card
4. 2015 BBM Rookie Edition Premium Yasuaki Yamasaki Autograph card
5. 2015 BBM 25th Anniversary Yoshinobu Takahashi/Hideki Matsui jersey card
6. 2015 BBM Real Venus Minami Takatsuka Autograph card
7. 2015 BBM Rookie Edition Premium Kona Takahashi Autograph card
8. 2015 BBM Real Venus Mizuho Nagai Autograph card
9. 2015 Swallows Fan Choice Tetsuto Yamada Autograph card
10. 2015 BBM Real Venus Kanae Yagi Autograph card
For the third issue in a row there are only six cards included with the magazine so I guess the days of "12 cards hidden in a big cardboard brick" are over after nearly two years. It'd be nice if the magazine price dropped back to 1000 yen like it was in late 2013 as well but you can't have everything I suppose. Five of the six cards are promos for the Rookie Edition set - Junpei Takahashi of the Hawks, Taiga Hirasawa of the Marines, Louis Okoye of the Eagles, Shun Takayama of the Tigers and Shinnosuke Ogasawara of the Dragons. The other card is a promo version of the "printed jersey" version of the 24 Karat box set's insert card that is itself a reprint of the 1998 Diamond Heroes jersey card for Yoshinobu Takahashi.
 |
| SCM #359 |
 |
| SCM #361 |
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Two Days In Peoria
As I've mentioned before, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters are doing their "winter camp" in Peoria, Arizona for the past two weeks at the Padres spring training complex. They will wrap everything up tomorrow and head for Nago, Okinawa on Tuesday for the remainder of spring training.
I had an extended business trip that involved babysitting a rack of equipment in Yuma, Arizona for a test event so I was not far away during much of the Fighters' camp. I wasn't sure exactly when I was going to get there for a while but finally everything fell into place and I was able to spend last Tuesday and Wednesday (the 9th and 10th) in Peoria. This worked out very well for me for a number of reasons - number one is that Deanna Rubin arrived in Peoria in time for camp on Monday and was able to give me a heads up on what to expect, number two is that Deanna and Dani would both be there when I was and would be able to help me out in getting autographs (and generally just be awesome to hang out with) and number three is that Shohei Ohtani was going to pitch two innings in the exhibition game against the Lotte Giants on Wednesday afternoon. I love it when a plan comes together.
I showed up to camp at around 9 AM on Tuesday morning but the gates did not open until 9:30. After going in I discovered that the Fighters were already on the practice fields working out. I walked around a bit, watching catcher drills (I think) on one field and pitcher fielding practice on another. I was trying to identify players but I was having issues because (1) I don't know the Fighters real well and (2) they were wearing some sort of workout jersey that had small uniform numbers on them. I managed to get an autograph from Brandon Laird but wasn't quite sure how to proceed when I ran into Dani - I had never met her or Deanna before but I recognized her from Deanna's post and Deanna had given her a heads up that I'd be there so we were both on the look out for each other. Deanna showed up a little bit later and the two of them were able to point out players that I had cards of that I could autographs on. I got Hirotoshi Masui and pitching coach Masato Yoshii relatively quickly after that. We hung out where the pitchers were working out for a bit while Yuki Saitoh was throwing - eventually we were able to catch him coming off the field and Deanna got her picture taken with him while I got a card signed - if he only knew how mean the two of us had been to him over the years he probably wouldn't have been so nice! (Deanna has more details on our encounter with him in her post on the day's activities.) I also was able to get Tomohiro Kuroki to sign a card on his way to lunch.
After a bit of a break to go back to Dani's hotel to say goodbye (and hello in my case) to Joe who'd been hanging out with Dani for a few days but had to fly home to Boston that afternoon and to go get lunch ourselves, we returned in time to watch Shoheo Ohtani take batting practice. Deanna had told me that there were a number of people in camp that I hadn't brought baseball cards for and I had stopped at Target that morning to pick up some 3x5 index cards just in case I ran into any of them. I used one to get former Fighters pitcher Yoshinori Tateyama's autograph. There were some amusing moments while we watched Ohtani hit - at one point Tateyama had moved onto the field right in front of us, gotten hold of a baseball and whirled and threw it into the fence right in front of us. He then grabbed his shoulder and said "OW! I can't throw". When Ohtani was finished hitting, coach Kazuyuki Shirai, who had been hitting fungoes while standing next to the batting cage, turned to the assembled media people who were watching and said (in Japanese but Deanna translated it for me) something along the lines of "OK, he's done. Go somewhere else now!" I made an attempt to get Ohtani's autograph but he declined to sign. I was able to get Daikan Yoh (on his 2006 BBM 1st Version rookie card when he was still going by Chung-Shou Yang) along with coaches Shirai and Shinji Takahashi. I also got an autograph of recently retired Fighters catcher Satoshi Nakajima on a 3x5 index card.
By 3:30-ish training camp was pretty much done - the player's were going inside to do there weight training. There wouldn't be much opportunity to see the players again until they were finished and heading across the parking lot for their hotel so the three of us decided to split up and head for our individual hotels with the intent to meet up again in an hour or so. I got checked into my hotel and relaxed for a bit before heading back over around 4:30 or so. I think I just missed Ohtani - he was heading across the parking lot as I got out of my car. He was surrounded by a bunch of people but he wasn't stopping to sign for anyone so I didn't see any reason to pursue him. I did chase Kensuke Kondoh across the parking lot after Dani showed up and pointed him out to me - he was gracious enough to stop and sign my card. Deanna soon joined up and we had a lot of fun hanging out and watching for players and coaches - I was able to get autographs of Hiromi Oka and coach Shinichi Kawana. (Kawana was kind of funny - Deanna and I were kind of running after him on the parking lot with her calling out "He's got an old card of you to sign" while I was desperately trying to find the card!) We stuck around until around 6:30 or so before calling it a night and going our separate ways.
I got over to camp at around 9-ish again on Wednesday and walked around the "big" ballpark that the game would be played in that afternoon while I waited for the gates to open. Once inside, I again just hung out for a while watching practices going on on different fields. At one point I tried to get Shota Ohno to sign a card but he called out to me that he had to practice. I did catch Luis Mendoza and Kenta Uehara however - although my worst fear was realized with Uehara at one point. I had seen him go into a dugout at the field where Yoh, Laird and Sho Nakata were taking batting practice and approached someone that I thought was him coming back out of the dugout a few minutes later - it wasn't him! I apologized and went back to the field to wait. Luckily after another few minutes Uehara did come out (he had a uniform top on so I could see his number) and he signed the card for me. I struck up a conversation with a guy named Richard who was sitting in the stands and ended up trading a Shohei Ohtani card to him for a baseball he had gotten during the week - apparently the Fighters were using a ball that just had the Fighters' logo on it for practice and maybe for the exhibition games as well. When Nakata came off the field after he was done hitting both Richard and I tried to see if he would sign but he just kept walking. I was able to get Fighters coach Makoto Kaneko to sign a card as he was coming off the field however - he was with an American I didn't recognize in a Padres cap who was kind of amused to see a card of Kaneko from his playing days.
Deanna showed up just after this and we hung out for a bit. She ran into a Red Sox scout that she had met in Japan back when he worked for the Marines and we talked with him for a bit and then she ran into former Fighter Fernando Seguignol who is now a scout for the Cubs and we talked with him for a longer time. He also signed an index card for me. It was rapidly getting close to game time at this point and we were getting ready to head over to the "big" ballpark when a golf card pulled up and deposited Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama near us. He was basically rounding up all the remaining players and coaches but he was gracious enough to stop and sign an autograph for me. I had figured it was a long shot at best that I was going to get him to sign so I was very happy that I got him.
We got over to the ballpark and grabbed seats in the front row above the Fighters dugout where Dani soon joined us. Deanna had brought an Ohtani cheer towel that she set up over the dugout where hopefully he would see it when he came off the field but it didn't look like he ever did. We occupied our time waiting for the game to start by taking a ton of pictures and looking to see who was around. There were a lot of scouts sitting behind home plate and there was also a guy who cosplays as Yu Darvish who goes by the name "Minivish". Deanna pointed out where Atsunori Inaba was sitting and I ran over to get his autograph on an index card. He was getting fitted for a wire when I walked up - presumably for commentary during the game but who knows, maybe it was for a sting on Kazuhiro Kiyohara - so I had to wait a few minutes but he was very nice. I meant to get a picture with him but it didn't happen.
The game itself went by pretty quickly. Ohtani started and went two innings. He faced seven batters, gave up one hit and struck out four. The Fighters scored a run in the sixth and looked like they were going to win but the Giants scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie it up and that's how it ended. Most of the Fighters' starters were out of the game by the fourth and most of the scouts had departed shortly after Ohtani was done pitching. I had to leave shortly after the game ended to get ready to return to Maryland the following day (and try to adjust to temperatures in the 20s after two weeks of Arizona sun) so I said my goodbyes to Deanna and Dani. Deanna was heading to the Phoenix Suns game that evening while Dani was planning on coming back out to parking lot in a little bit like we had the previous evening. I found out from reading her twitter feed that I probably would have gotten Ohtani and Nakata's autographs if I had come back out but I was pretty exhausted at that point (hadn't slept well the previous few nights) so I'm content with what I got. I managed to get 15 of the 27 cards I had brought out autographed along with four others on index cards.
It was great getting to meet Deanna in person after something like 10 years of corresponding with her on-line and I can't thank her and Dani enough for helping me get autographs and letting me hang out with them. It was great meeting Dani, Joe and Richard and a lot of fun getting to talk with Fernando Seguignol too. I really had a blast and I wish I could have stayed longer.
Check out Deanna's posts for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday/Friday to see more details about what was going on, both when I was there and when I wasn't. The Fighters official spring training information page has links to summaries for each day as well (and there's at least a couple photos that you can see me in the background).
This post has had a lot of text so far so now I'm going to inundate you with a lot of pictures:
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| Workout |
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| Tower in the center of the practice fields |
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| Ohtani doing pitcher fielding drills |
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| Masato Yoshii overseeing the pitchers workout |
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| Yoshii signing for me |
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| Shohei Ohtani |
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| Ohtani batting |
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| Ohtani talking to Makoto Kaneko |
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| Satoshi Nakajima signing for me |
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| Deanna getting her picture taken with Takumi Ohshima |
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| Daikan Yoh was a menace on his bicycle (he's the lead blur) |
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| Spring Training for umpires as well |
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| Fernando Seguignol |
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| Hideki Kuriyama |
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| Flags at the big ballpark - the flag in the lower left is the Fighers |
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| Back of the scoreboard |
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| Gate at the ballpark |
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| Makoto Kaneko |
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| Deanna and her Ohtani towel |
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| One of the Lotte players doffed his hat when passing the Fighters dugout |
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| Sho Nakata |
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| Daikan Yoh |
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| Takuya Nakashima |
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| Deanna & Minivish |
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| Haruki Nishikawa |
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| Yoh leading off second |
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| Ohtani warming up with Shota Ohno |
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| Sho Nakata batting with Yoh leading off third |
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| Nakata |
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| Ohtani pitching in the first |
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| Ohtani and Ryo Ishikawa |
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| Brandon Laird |
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| Ohtani pitching in the second |
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| More Ohtani pitching in the second |
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| Daikan Yoh batting |
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| Kohei Arihara |
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| Sung Bae Kim |
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| Go Matsumoto |
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| Nishikawa scoring the Fighters only run |
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| Yu Yeong Kim |
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| Final score |
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| Yoshinori Tateyama |
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| Satoshi Nakajima |
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| Fernando Seguignol |
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| Atsunori Inaba |
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Card Of The Week February 14
The first qualifier for the 2017 World Baseball Classic was held over the last few days with Australia coming out on top of South Africa, New Zealand and the Philippines to earn a spot in next year's tournament. One of the odd bits of information to come out of this is that former Marine and Baystar pitcher Naoyuki Shimizu is assistant general manager and pitching coach for the New Zealand team (known as the Diamondblacks). Here's a card of Shimizu when he was still pitching for the Marines:
H/T NPB Reddit
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| 2006 BBM Marines #M09 |
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Dae-Ho Lee of the Seattle Mariners
Continuing to catch up on things that happened while I was gone...
Former Lotte Giant, Orix Buffalo and Fukuoka Softbank Hawk Dae-Ho Lee signed a minor league deal with the Mariners a couple weeks back. Lee originally joined Lotte in the KBO as a pitcher in 2001 before switching to being a position player later that season. He stayed with Lotte for 11 years before moving to Orix for the 2012 season. He stayed with the Buffaloes two seasons before moving to the Hawks in time for the 2014 season. He won a Nippon Series championship in each of his two seasons with the Hawks.
He won two Triple Crowns in the KBO (2006 & 2010) and led the league in batting one other time (2011). He was MVP in 2010 and won four Golden Gloves (2006-07, 2010-11). He led the Pacific League in RBIs in 2012 and made the Best 9 team twice (2012 as a first baseman and 2015 as DH). He also was the MVP of last fall's Nippon Series.
He's played for the Korean National Team on a number of occasions - the 2008 Olympics, the 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classic and the 2015 Premier 12. He won gold with the team in 2008 and 2012.
I only know of one card for him from the KBO - #AL-006 from the 2010 KBO "game" set. He's had a couple cards in the Topps WBC issues in 2009 and also appears in the 2013 Topps Tribute WBC set. He's also in the 2009 Konami WBC Heroes set. As you'd expect, he has quite a few cards from his days in NPB. He's been in all the BBM "flagship" sets in the past four years as well as the 2013 and 2014 Classic sets, the 2013 "Great Numbers" and the 2015 "Memories Of Uniform" sets and the 2012 All Star set. He's had at least one card in each of the Calbee sets for the four years he was in Japan. As always, this is not a complete list but some of the highlights. Here's a couple of his cards:
Former Lotte Giant, Orix Buffalo and Fukuoka Softbank Hawk Dae-Ho Lee signed a minor league deal with the Mariners a couple weeks back. Lee originally joined Lotte in the KBO as a pitcher in 2001 before switching to being a position player later that season. He stayed with Lotte for 11 years before moving to Orix for the 2012 season. He stayed with the Buffaloes two seasons before moving to the Hawks in time for the 2014 season. He won a Nippon Series championship in each of his two seasons with the Hawks.
He won two Triple Crowns in the KBO (2006 & 2010) and led the league in batting one other time (2011). He was MVP in 2010 and won four Golden Gloves (2006-07, 2010-11). He led the Pacific League in RBIs in 2012 and made the Best 9 team twice (2012 as a first baseman and 2015 as DH). He also was the MVP of last fall's Nippon Series.
He's played for the Korean National Team on a number of occasions - the 2008 Olympics, the 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classic and the 2015 Premier 12. He won gold with the team in 2008 and 2012.
I only know of one card for him from the KBO - #AL-006 from the 2010 KBO "game" set. He's had a couple cards in the Topps WBC issues in 2009 and also appears in the 2013 Topps Tribute WBC set. He's also in the 2009 Konami WBC Heroes set. As you'd expect, he has quite a few cards from his days in NPB. He's been in all the BBM "flagship" sets in the past four years as well as the 2013 and 2014 Classic sets, the 2013 "Great Numbers" and the 2015 "Memories Of Uniform" sets and the 2012 All Star set. He's had at least one card in each of the Calbee sets for the four years he was in Japan. As always, this is not a complete list but some of the highlights. Here's a couple of his cards:
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| 2009 Topps "WBC Redemption" |
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| 2010 KBO "Game" set #AL-006 |
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| 2012 BBM 1st Version #094 |
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| 2013 Front Runner Buffaloes Season Summary #16 |
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| 2014 BBM Classic #021 |
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| 2015 Calbee #088 |
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Teppei Tsuchiya
Former Dragon, Eagle and Buffalo Teppei Tsuchiya announced his retirement a few weeks back. He was originally drafted by the Dragons in the fifth round of the fall 2000 draft out of Oita Prefectural Tsukumi High School but he did not make his ichi-gun debut until 2004. He had a kind of odd experience that year in that he was the MVP of the Farm Championship game (held between the champions of the Eastern and Western league) and then appeared as a pinch runner in the Nippon Series - I don't know how common it is for a player to appear in both the Farm Championship and the Nippon Series in the same year. He played well at ni-gun in 2005 (hitting .336) but he didn't get much of chance with the ichi-gun team and the Dragons sold him to Rakuten following the season. He almost immediately moved into the starting lineup for the Eagles and hit .303 his first year there. He remained a regular for the Eagles for the next four years, hitting over .300 twice more. His playing time started to diminish after that and the Eagles released hime following the 2013 season. He signed on with Orix but his playing time with the top team didn't really increase - 50 games in 2014 and only 13 in 2015 - and his performance continued to suffer. I think he had some nagging injuries as well. He was released by Orix at the end of last season and participated in the 12 team tryout in November but he didn't receive any interest and so he announced his retirement.
Teppei (as he has been registered in NPB since 2006) made the All Star team twice (2007 & 2010) and was named to a Best 9 team once - in 2009, the year he lead the Pacific League in hitting with a .327 average. His only Nippon Series appearances came as a pinch runner in the 2004 Series - he was on the 2013 Eagles team but he did not play in the Series.
Teppei (as he has been registered in NPB since 2006) made the All Star team twice (2007 & 2010) and was named to a Best 9 team once - in 2009, the year he lead the Pacific League in hitting with a .327 average. His only Nippon Series appearances came as a pinch runner in the 2004 Series - he was on the 2013 Eagles team but he did not play in the Series.
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| 2001 BBM #306 |
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| 2004 BBM Nippon Series #55 |
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| 2006 BBM 2nd Version #611 |
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| 2007 Calbee #053 |
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| 2010 BBM 1st Version #438 |
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| 2010 BBM All Stars #A61 |
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| 2010 Calbee #064 |
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| 2012 BBM Eagles #E64 |
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| 2015 BBM Buffaloes #Bs56 |
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