Most Upside in Next 5 Years

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

I am thinking Japanese cards have room, but a lot less than five years ago =.

Baseball has been popular in Japan for almost a hundred years. But, other than players who also played in the USA, how many people can name at least 5 Japanese players, besides Oh?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Baseball has been popular in Japan for almost a hundred years. But, other than players who also played in the USA, how many people can name at least 5 Japanese players, besides Oh?

Just from my collection:

Kazuhisa Inao: 276-137 record and a 1.98 ERA, 42 wins in a season, 20 consecutive wins, and 1.06 ERA in his rookie year



Isao Harimoto: best player you've never heard of: .319 BA, 3,085 hits (#1 all time NPB), 504 home runs, and 319 stolen bases



Katsuya Nomura: 657 home runs, 2,901 hits, and 1,988 RBIs, 5x MVP and a triple crown



Masaichi Kaneda and Tetsuya Yoneda: Kaneda had 400 wins and 4,490 Ks. Yoneda 350 wins 3,388 Ks.



Victor Starffin: 303 wins, 176 losses, a 2.09 career ERA, and 83 career shutouts, the most in league history. He is the first Japanese leaguer to reach 300 wins and holds the record for wins in a single season with 42 victories in 1939.



Hint: he's the white guy. Russian raised in Japan.

And I know it isn't part of the challenge but I do like this Oh card:



1978 Yamakatsu

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Just from my collection:

Okay, you're one. I'll bet there are a few more people on here who can also name 5 non-MLB Japanese ballplayers. And hundreds, or thousands, who can't.

For Japanese cards to be a hot investment over the next 5 years, tens of thousands of collectors would have to suddenly take interest in the game being played over there. This would require not only studying the history of players with unfamiliar names but also learning a bit of a foreign language. And that, in turn, would probably require becoming at least somewhat familiar with a new and complicated alphabet.

That's just way too exotic to catch on in a big way. Pokemon, sure. But the parallel universe of Japanese baseball, no.