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Originally Posted by nat
Wow, those are great cards! I love the round glasses that seem to have been super popular in Japan in the 40s and 50s.
I still don't have a Yonamine card. He's really popular (at least by the standards of vintage Japanese players), although I'm not 100% sure why. He was certainly good, but it's not like he's noticeably (or even: any) better than Oshita, or a number of other contemporary players. Is it that he was also a pro football player? That he was American probably helps explain his popularity with Americans, but it's not like he was the first. Wakabayashi, for example, pre-dated him.
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My opinion about Wally Yonamine is that his style of playing baseball was made known by Rob Fitts in his book and also being an American along being associated with the 49er's in football