The 2026 edition of the World Baseball Classic is kicking off this upcoming Thursday and I was looking over the Samurai Japan roster to prepare for the my usual post for it when I was kind of struck by something. I'm not much of an autograph collector so I was kind of surprised to realize that I had autographed cards of six of the thirty players on the roster plus one of the coaches. I thought I'd show off what I had.
The autographs I have are split between "authentic" autographed cards from sets and cards that I got autographed in person. Let's hit the "authentic" cards first.
Several players on the roster had previously been members of the collegiate Samurai Japan team and had autographed and/or memorabilia cards in several of Panini's USA Baseball sets over the years. Seishiro Sakamoto and Masataka Yoshida appeared in the 2013 set:
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| 2013 Panini USA Baseball Japanese All Stars Signatures #12 |
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| 2013 Panini USA Baseball Japanese All Stars Signatures #23 |
The 2019 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes set included autographed cards for both Hiromi Itoh and Teruaki Sato, but I unfortunately have never been able to track any of them down at a price I was willing to pay. I suspect at this point that I never will. Especially since I expect that this WBC is going to be Sato's "coming out" party.
I had somewhat better luck with the 2020 Stars & Stripes set as I have cards for the two of the three members of the roster that were included in that set - Shugo Maki and Shota Morishita:
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| 2020 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes Silhouettes Signatures Jerseys Prime #JCS-SM |
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| 2020 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes Silhouettes Signatures Jerseys Prime #JCS-SM |
Hiromi Itoh is the other player on the roster who was in the 2020 set - he was one of five players who appeared in both the 2019 and 2020 sets.
There are no players on the roster who were in the 2024 Panini set but I'm sure a few of them will be on the roster for the 2029 Tournament.
On to the cards that I got autographed in person...
Ten years ago last month, I spent a couple of days in Peoria, Arizona while the Fighters were doing the early portion of their spring training. I had taken a stack of baseball cards with me, hoping to get some signatures. I was kind of rude during the day, interrupting players trying to get from one practice event to another, although a number of them were gracious enough to stop and sign for me. I had better luck in the late afternoon when the players were leaving the ballpark after doing weight training and heading for their hotel. There were a number of us standing around in parking lot and the players were much more willing to stop and sign (and take photos with fans). My biggest problem was not recognizing players immediately so I'll be forever grateful to my friend Dani for pointing out Kensuke Kondoh had passed by and I was able to chase him down in the parking lot to get him to sign.
The next day, I was able to catch Fighters coach Makoto Kaneko as he came off one of the practice fields. Kaneko is one of the coaches for Samurai Japan this year:
There was one player that year that I wasn't able to get. I had corralled him as he finished batting practice the first afternoon I was there but he declined (I think politely) to sign. And I missed him later that day when I came back after the team finished doing weights. Dani told me when I arrived that he had just been there. I didn't come out at the end of the following day - my two days in Peoria were at the end of a two week work trip and I was exhausted - so ended up not getting anything signed by him.
Luckily, the Fighters returned to Peoria for training camp in 2017. I wasn't able to go - I only had enough leave and funds to do one trip early that year and I went to the WBC finals in Los Angeles a month later instead - but Dani was there. I had sent her a card and asked if she could get it signed for me. She agreed and, once again, I will be forever grateful to her for getting it signed and sent back to me:
I hope to have the post for the 2026 WBC roster up by Tuesday evening.
