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1990 Rushmore IBA World All-Stars
Sometimes a message can send you down quite the rabbit hole...A couple months ago I got a message from my friend Steve Smith in Australia asking if I'd ever seen cards from the 1990 Rushmore IBA World...
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Card Of The Week January 15
One of the things I've always liked to do with baseball cards is try to identify where and when the photo was taken. I don't think I'm particularly good at it but sometimes you get an easy one - like...
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Shintaro Fujinami of the Oakland Athletics
Last week pitcher Shintaro Fujinami, formerly of the Hanshin Tigers, signed a one year contract with the Oakland Athletics. Fujinami was the ace pitcher at Osaka Toin high school and made a name for...
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Yoshio Itoi
Well, I've put it off for as long as I could but it's finally time to start doing the posts for the players who retired at the end of last season. I'd been planning on getting to it sooner but the...
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Kenshi Sugiya
Kenshi Sugiya of the Fighters is another player who retired at the end of last season. Sugiya was a six round pick for Nippon-Ham out of Teikyo High School in 2008. I don't really have a lot to say...
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Lee Dae-ho
Lee Dae-ho, who played for four teams in three countries in his 22 year career, retired at the end of the 2022 season. Lee was originally drafted out of high school as a pitcher by the Lotte Giants in...
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Kosuke Fukudome
Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers legend Kosuke Fukudome was another player who retired at the end of the 2022 season.Fukudome had attended high school at the baseball powerhouse PL Gakuen and hit...
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Card of The Week January 22
The Australian Baseball League's regular season wrapped up this week end. There were a couple of playoff spots that got filled along with the seeding for next week's semi-finals but one of the most...
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Na Ji-wan
Longtime Kia Tigers outfielder Na Ji-wan retired at the end of the 2022 season. Na joined the Tigers out of Dankook University in 2008. He became a regular in 2009 and pretty much remained one...
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RIP Hiromitsu Kadota
Terrible news out of Japan today - former Nankai Hawks slugger Hiromitsu Kadota has passed away at age 74. Kadota had spent several years playing for Kuraray Okayama before being the second round pick...
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Atsushi Nohmi
Another player who retired at the end of last season was Atsushi Nohmi.Nohmi had made a name for himself at Tottori Jōhoku High School when he pitched a perfect game during the Spring Prefecture...
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Card Of The Week January 29
Hirokazu Sawamura is returning to Japan after two years with the Boston Red Sox. He signed a deal with the Chiba Lotte Marines so he rejoining the last NPB team he was with - although he was only with...
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Kenji Akashi
Long time Hawks utility player Kenji Akashi announced his retirement at the end of last season. Akashi was a fourth round pick of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the 2003 NPB draft. He's the last active...
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Topps Now Samurai Japan Team Set
Topps Japan had a a 30 card Topps Now Samurai Japan team set up for sale between the middle of December and the middle of January. I had ordered my set around New Year's and was pleasantly surprised...
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Tomotaka Sakaguchi
Another player who hung up his shoes at the end of the 2022 season was Tomotaka Sakaguchi of the Swallows. Sakaguchi was taken in the the first round of the 2002 draft out of Kobe Kokusaidai Fuzoku...
View ArticleFirst 2023 Sets
It's February 1st, training camps have opened in Japan and it's time to talk about the first 2023 baseball cards sets that have been announced. So without further ado...- BBM's first baseball card set...
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Keizo Kawashima
Back to the retirement posts...Keizo Kawashima ended his 17 year, four team playing career at the end of last season. Kawashima's another guy who ended up being basically a utility player (like Kenshi...
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Ryosuke Hirata
Long time Chunichi Dragons outfielder Ryosuke Hirata announced his retirement at the end of last season. Hirata attended high school at baseball powerhouse Osaka Toin and hit five home runs in the...
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Card Of The Week February 5
I recently picked up a 2020 Epoch NPB insert card of Munetaka Murakami off of Ebay. Besides the attraction of picking up yet another Murakami card, I also wanted to see an example of an Epoch insert...
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Kazuhisa Makita
One more retirement post for now - pitcher Kazuhisa Makita announced he was done pitching back on October 25th. Makita spent a couple years playing for Nippon Express after graduating from Heisei...
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