Card Of The Week May 26

I was very excited during my visit to Japan back in March to score a card of a player from the Nishi Nippon Pirates.  The Pirates were one of the seven new teams that came into being in 1950 when the two league system started in Japan.  They only lasted the one season - they ended up merging with the Nishitetsu Clippers to become the Nishitetsu Lions (which are of course now the Saitama Seibu Lions).  Until I had gotten the card, I had never actually seen a picture of a Pirates player.

Well, now I've seen two - I picked this bromide card up on eBay in the last month.  It's from the set that Engel refers to as JBR 2 "1950 Black & White Type II".  It depicts Yuko Minamimura, who was a 33 year old rookie with the Pirates.  He would go on to play seven years with the Giants after the Pirates-Clippers merger - he was the MVP of the first Nippon Series that the Giants won in 1951.