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RIP Tony Blanco
Devastating news out of the Dominican Republic today - a roof collapse at a night club in Santo Domingo has left at least 66 people dead and over 150 injured. Among the dead were merengue musician...
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Hiroyuki Nakajima
Long time NPB star Hiroyuki Nakajima officially announced his retirement a few weeks ago. He'd been hoping to continue playing after being released by Chunichi last fall but, with the beginning of the...
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Card Of The Week April 13
The Lions and Fighters had a scoreless tie going into the bottom of the twelfth inning Friday in Hokkaido. With two outs and pinch runner Go Matsumoto on second, though, pinch hitter Yuya Gunji...
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Card Of The Week April 20
The Hawks went hitless in Tokorozawa last Friday night but you won't see that game added to the roster of NPB no-hitters for two reasons. The first is that Softbank was held hitless by two pitchers...
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Yet Another Zippy Zapping
I was traveling for work all of last week and when I returned home late Friday night, I discovered that I had once again received an envelope from Kenny - aka Zippy Zappy - in Japan. I was somewhat...
View ArticleAn Introduction
About a year or so ago, I was approached by someone on Reddit about collaborating on some sort of introduction to Japanese baseball cards. He was very enthusiastic about it and I tried to be, but I...
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RIP Masaaki Koyama
Hall of Fame pitcher Masaaki Koyama passed away from congestive heart failure last week. He was 90 years old.Koyama failed in a tryout with the Taiyo Shochiku Robins in 1953 before signing with the...
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Card Of The Week April 27
There were two walk off wins today in NPB and, luckily, they were both in the Pacific League so I can share video of them.  First up, Takeya Nakamura of the Lions came through in the bottom of the...
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Mel Bailey Postcards
I got an email a few weeks back from someone who was trying to put together a comprehensive list of Mel Bailey postcards. Mel Bailey was a US Air Force captain stationed in Japan in the mid to late...
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Card Of The Week May 4
2004 BBM Golden Arms #008I came across the above card of Masaaki Koyama when I was preparing the memorial post I did for him last week and I found it very intriguing. I've had this card for years but...
View ArticleTeam Sets Galore!
Once again it's time to do a run-down of the sets that have recently been announced:- BBM has announced four more of their "comprehensive" team sets for 2025. I will just repeat the general details...
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Card Of The Week May 11
There was a no-hitter in Japan last Monday but you may not have heard much about it. There's two reasons for that. The first is that it was a combined no-hitter which NPB does not count as an...
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Rookies and Players On New Teams In Calbee Series One
Calbee released this year's Series One last week, about six weeks later than the set usually comes out. I had wondered back in March when I had learned from Calbee what their release plan for the set...
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Dayan Viciedo
I had had a list of players that I had intended to do retirement posts for this past off season but between not having time and not having 2024 cards for them yet, I've pretty much decided against...
View ArticleMore Team Sets, 2nd Version and the return of Topps
I know it was less than two weeks since the last time I did a round up of new release announcements but they've been coming fast and furious. Let's get caught up, shall we?- Topps is back for their...
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Card Of The Week May 18
Last Tuesday night in Inchon, Choi Jeong of the SSG Landers became the first KBO player to hit 500 home runs. Choi had become the all time KBO home run leader last year when he passed Lee Seung-yuop's...
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Some 2025 Cards
I have been the recipient of a couple random acts of kindness this week. I don't know what I've done to deserve the generosity of a couple of my internet friends, especially since I've never met...
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Hideki Irabu's Hanshin Tigers Cards
In December of 2002, the Hanshin Tigers made an announcement. After spending the previous six seasons in MLB, Hideki Irabu would be returning to Japan and NPB for the 2003 season.Tigers manager...
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Card Of The Week May 25
Teruaki Sato of the Tigers is leading the Central League in home runs right now and it's not a close race at the moment. Sato has 12 home runs and the two players tied for second - Sato's teammate...
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Hideto Asamura
Hideto Asamura of the Eagles got his 2000th hit last Saturday and became the latest member of the Meikyukai or "Golden Players Club". Asamura is the first member of this august group who was born in...
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The 2000 BBM O-N Set Saga Continues
Some time ago, I had picked up what I thought was a complete 2000 BBM O-N set off of Ebay but instead I got something that was a bit of a mystery. The 2000 BBM O-N set was a high end box set dedicated...
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Card Of The Week June 1
Two of hot rookies this year in the Pacific League are Rui Muneyama of the Eagles and Seiya Watanabe of the Lions. Muneyama has gotten more hype than Watanabe - five teams took him in the first round...
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RIP Shigeo Nagashima
2002 BBM All Time Heroes #005I have to be honest here - I'd been kind of hoping that I'd never write this post. I know I was fighting against actuarial probabilities, especially given that he'd had a...
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Card Of The Week June 8
Koji Chikamoto of the Hanshin Tigers got his 1000th career hit yesterday. I was thinking to myself that that was pretty impressive as Chikamoto hadn't been in the league wrong but then I realized that...
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Two Way Ohtani Cards
I was having a conversation via Reddit with a collector who was on a trip in Japan recently. He was telling me about his experiences at some of the Mint stores. One of the things he mentioned was...
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