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2014 BBM Rookie Edition Set
There are some things in life that are dependable. The sun will come up tomorrow morning. The tides will go in and go out. Yoshinobu Takahashi will get injured. The Cubs will not win the Series....
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Card Of The Week May 18
I picked up this card off Ebay recently and had a difficult time trying to identify it.Looking at Engel, the back matches the 1958 JCM 29 "Cartoon Catcher Back" set. The menko number indicates that...
View ArticleCalbee Series Two Announced
Calbee announced information today (I think) for Series Two. Like Series One, there will be 84 player cards in the set (7 per team). There will be two non-premium subsets included - the 12 card...
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Yomiuri Giants In Vero Beach
In March of 1975, the Yomiuri Giants traveled to Vero Beach, Florida for two weeks of training at the Los Angeles Dodgers spring training camp. This would be neither the first of the last time that...
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Card Of The Week May 25
Korakuen Stadium, former home of the Yomiuri Giants (among others) opened in 1937. As you might expect, the stadium originally had natural grass. Artificial turf was installed at the stadium in time...
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2014 Calbee Series One
I am under no illusion that any card company in Japan pays any attention to what I write. But I am happy that my main complaint about last year's Calbee Series One set was addressed in this year's...
View ArticleNew BBM Releases
BBM announced a couple sets in the last week or so:- There's a box set dedicated to the Carp's pitchers both old and new that is being released today (or yesterday in Japan). It's called something...
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Sports Card Magazine #105
Sports Card Magazine #105 hit the news stands in Japan on Tuesday of this week. I got mine yesterday via Amazon Japan. As always it is of limited use to me as a non-Japanese reader, but there are a...
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2014 BBM 1st Version
2014 BBM 1st Version Set SummarySize: 409 cards number 1-408 with two versions of card #137Cards Per Team: 28 (team card, manager + 26 players)Team Card Theme: MascotsNumber Of Leader Cards:...
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An Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
The 1968 Jintan Gum Giants Trump set (JGA 137) is a very rare set. When I say "very rare", what I mean is that Engel gives it a scarcity factor of "R5" which means that there are only 3 or fewer known...
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Card Of The Week June 1
It was a bittersweet day for Chihiro Kaneko and the Orix Buffaloes yesterday. Kaneko had no hit the Giants through nine innings, pitching brilliantly and striking out 11. The bad news, however, was...
View ArticleMore New Stuff Announced
Four new sets have been announced in the past few days, three from BBM and one from Epoch.- The big announcement was this year's 2nd Version set from BBM. This set is looking pretty much like most of...
View ArticleOld And New Korean Baseball Cards
Jason did a post early this week showing pictures of a number of Korean cards that neither he or I had previously seen. A couple show major league players including one item that is a pretty blatant...
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RIP Don Zimmer
Don Zimmer passed away today at age 83. One little known fact of Zim's playing career is that he spent the 1966 season with the Toei Flyers, hitting .183 with 9 home runs in 87 games. He hung up his...
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Yulieski Gourriel
Cuban star Yulieski Gourriel will make his NPB debut tomorrow with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars. Gourriel is the second Cuban player allowed by his government to play in Japan this year after Frederich...
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More On The New KBO Set
Jason let me know today that someone on Ebay was selling boxes of the new KBO set. The seller had some additional information about the set in English:As I mentioned the other day, each pack contains...
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The Curious Managerial Career Of Haruki Ihara
Haruki Ihara resigned as manager of the Lions last week. This came as a bit of a shock because although the Lions were playing poorly (20-33 record and last in the Pacific League), Ihara had just...
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Card Of The Week June 8
One thing I left out of my post on Haruki Ihara was who the Lions replaced him with this week - batting coach Norio Tanabe is taking over on an interim basis. Tanabe played for the Lions from 1985 to...
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2007 BBM 2nd Version Set
2007 BBM 2nd Version Set SummarySize: 250 cards numbered 503-752Cards Per Team: 16 (team card + 15 players)Team Card Theme: Game Action/CandidsNumber Of Leader Cards: N/AChecklists: NoneSubsets: 1st...
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Card Of The Week June 15
I think one of the most difficult things is to follow the footsteps of a famous father into their same field, especially when their father is an icon. In the US, we had the example of Pete Rose's son...
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