Japanese HOF Project

[nat]

It's great having people around who have actually seen these guys. To me they are names on a baseball card (or a list of stats), but I would certainly have liked to have seen them play.

One more BBM card and then we'll go back to vintage.

This is Tsutomu Ito. He had a very long career, and so managed to accumulate some respectable career numbers, but he really wasn't much of a hitter. A career slash line of 247/319/363 does not strike fear into the heart of opposing pitchers. He was a great defensive catcher, however, and his defense got him sixteen all-star selections. I don't think that someone like this would make the American hall of fame. We do have hall of famers who are there primarily for their defense, but the only one who was consistently below-average as a hitter was Bill Mazeroski, and he (1) was the greatest defensive player ever at his position, (2) had a really famous home run, and (3) was such an embarrassing mistake that they reformed the veteran's committee afterwards to make sure that a mistake like this doesn't happen again.

Also, I don't have any idea what 'affluent nineteen' means.

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by nat

Also, I don't have any idea what 'affluent nineteen' means.

That is a reference to the text on the back of the card, which is entirely about how much money he gets paid (I think this must have been part of a subset). The top text in the text box says 100 Million Yen Player and it goes on to say that he was the first catcher in NPB history to be paid 100 Million yen per year.

That is about 900,000 US$, so even by 1993 standards the players here weren't getting quite the insane MLB rates, but I think he can definitely be called affluent!

[nat]

Sadarahu Oh

868 HRs. 9 MVPs. 13 consecutive HR titles.

His autobiography is dedicated to his hitting coach.

Originally I wrote a rather lengthy summary of Oh’s career, and made an attempt to explain, in so far as I understand it, what he means (and doesn’t mean) to Japanese culture. I mentioned how he is half Chinese and still holds a Taiwanese passport. I mentioned how he was a pitcher in high school, and how he hid a blistered pitching hand from his manager so that he could pitch a crucial game. And how, once he turned pro, he wasn’t any good, until he developed his famous “flamingo” batting stance. But I deleted it, because it is all, in a way, beside the point. There is one essential fact about needs to be conveyed, and it is this:

Sadaharu Oh was the greatest player in the history of Japanese baseball.


The card itself is from the enormous 1975/76 Calbee set that Sean is working on. (Sean, if you need this one I’ll trade it for another Oh card.) Menko/bromide production tailed off significantly in the late 1960s. Through the 1970s and 1980s Calbee was, basically, the only show in town. Calbee cards were inserted into envelopes and attached to the outside of bags of potato chips. Calbee also makes little toasted veggie snack things that my wife loves.

[Exhibitman]

I'll play.

Here's a 1958 JCM29 Inao:



IMO one of the nicest looking Japanese sets, 1964 JG2 Nomura:



Nagashima:



Oh:



I've got nice cards of Kawakami (nickname "The God of Batting"), Harimoto (only 3,000 hits member), and Victor Starrfin somewhere.

here's a bromide of Lefty O'Doul from the 1949 SF Seals goodwill tour:



and from the 1951 tour with Joe D:



This postcard depicting Lefty and Japanese HOF manager Shunichi Amachi has a commemorative postmark dated 11/7/51 from Narumi Stadium, where the Seals played that day:



and I have a really spiffy 1950 tour 8 x 10 bromide of Dom DiMaggio somewhere too.

[nat]

Great cards Adam! The quality of the images on the JG2s is excellent, but I especially like the O'Doul/DiMaggio card.

Eventually I'll need to decide whether a Goudey O'Doul counts for this project, or whether I'll need to get a Japanese one. (With similar issues about Nomo, Matsui, etc.)

[Exhibitman]

well, when in Rome, er, Tokyo. There are Japanese O'Doul cards so I think you have to go that route. That's free advice and it is worth every dime you pay for it.

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by nat

Sadarahu Oh

868 HRs. 9 MVPs. 13 consecutive HR titles.

His autobiography is dedicated to his hitting coach.

Originally I wrote a rather lengthy summary of Oh’s career, and made an attempt to explain, in so far as I understand it, what he means (and doesn’t mean) to Japanese culture. I mentioned how he is half Chinese and still holds a Taiwanese passport. I mentioned how he was a pitcher in high school, and how he hid a blistered pitching hand from his manager so that he could pitch a crucial game. And how, once he turned pro, he wasn’t any good, until he developed his famous “flamingo” batting stance. But I deleted it, because it is all, in a way, beside the point. There is one essential fact about needs to be conveyed, and it is this:

Sadaharu Oh was the greatest player in the history of Japanese baseball.


The card itself is from the enormous 1975/76 Calbee set that Sean is working on. (Sean, if you need this one I’ll trade it for another Oh card.) Menko/bromide production tailed off significantly in the late 1960s. Through the 1970s and 1980s Calbee was, basically, the only show in town. Calbee cards were inserted into envelopes and attached to the outside of bags of potato chips. Calbee also makes little toasted veggie snack things that my wife loves.

Awesome card! Thanks for the offer, though I already have that one. I haven't counted but Oh appears in probably 80 or 90 cards in that set (which is another thing to like about it!) I recently sorted my set and found I had a few Oh doubles if you (or anyone) is interested in a trade!

[seanofjapan]

Adam - those cards are beautiful!

About O'Doul, I only have one Japanese card of his which is from a menko set issued during the Seals 1949 tour of Japan. The art is pretty crudely drawn but as an uncut sheet the set as a whole is kind of visually appealing. They aren't too expensive either:

https://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspo...francisco.html

[JoeDfan]

Is that O'Doul/DiMaggio card supposed to have cut corners?

I have one, but I thought it was trimmed...

Thanks,
Sean

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by JoeDfan

Is that O'Doul/DiMaggio card supposed to have cut corners?

I have one, but I thought it was trimmed...

Thanks,
Sean

I've only seen them with corners cut. I have no idea, though. Mine was pasted to notebook paper too.

[MRSPORTSCARDCOLLECTOR]

Originally Posted by nat

Sadarahu Oh

868 HRs. 9 MVPs. 13 consecutive HR titles.

His autobiography is dedicated to his hitting coach.

Originally I wrote a rather lengthy summary of Oh’s career, and made an attempt to explain, in so far as I understand it, what he means (and doesn’t mean) to Japanese culture. I mentioned how he is half Chinese and still holds a Taiwanese passport. I mentioned how he was a pitcher in high school, and how he hid a blistered pitching hand from his manager so that he could pitch a crucial game. And how, once he turned pro, he wasn’t any good, until he developed his famous “flamingo” batting stance. But I deleted it, because it is all, in a way, beside the point. There is one essential fact about needs to be conveyed, and it is this:

Sadaharu Oh was the greatest player in the history of Japanese baseball.


The card itself is from the enormous 1975/76 Calbee set that Sean is working on. (Sean, if you need this one I’ll trade it for another Oh card.) Menko/bromide production tailed off significantly in the late 1960s. Through the 1970s and 1980s Calbee was, basically, the only show in town. Calbee cards were inserted into envelopes and attached to the outside of bags of potato chips. Calbee also makes little toasted veggie snack things that my wife loves.

I was wondering with Sadaharu Oh is how many rookie cards are there of him? Which one is the hardest and which one is the easiest to get? Getting a Sadaharu Oh card is something I like to explore this year.

[John1941]

Originally Posted by MRSPORTSCARDCOLLECTOR

I was wondering with Sadaharu Oh is how many rookie cards are there of him? Which one is the hardest and which one is the easiest to get? Getting a Sadaharu Oh card is something I like to explore this year.

There a ton of Sadaharu Oh rookie cards. 1959 had a lot of card sets. Because I'm not really a Japanese card collector I don't know any more than that.