The Reiwa Era began last Wednesday and the first player to hit a home run in the new era was Hayato Sakamoto of the Giants, who hit a solo shot off Daisuke Yamai of the Dragons in the second inning of their game that day. I kind of view Sakamoto as the NPB equivalent of Derek Jeter in that he plays the glamour position for the most storied team in the league (much as it pains me to admit) so of course Sakamoto was going to hit the first Reiwa home run.
I have an odd card of Sakamoto to share this week. It's a promo card from Bandai for the 2011 Owners League 02 set. Here's the front and back of it:
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You can see that the card number is "OLP02 001/001" which I think means "Owners League Promo 02" although what's kind of odd about that is that the actual cards from the 02 set are labeled "OL06" as it was the sixth Owners League set issued by Bandai - they issued four in 2010 and this was the second one issued in 2011. So why is this card labeled "02" while the others are labeled "06"? I have no idea.
I have an odd card of Sakamoto to share this week. It's a promo card from Bandai for the 2011 Owners League 02 set. Here's the front and back of it:
You can see that the card number is "OLP02 001/001" which I think means "Owners League Promo 02" although what's kind of odd about that is that the actual cards from the 02 set are labeled "OL06" as it was the sixth Owners League set issued by Bandai - they issued four in 2010 and this was the second one issued in 2011. So why is this card labeled "02" while the others are labeled "06"? I have no idea.