Sunday, October 18, 2009
Card Of The Week October 18
Not content with simply making the playoffs for the first time in their history, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles swept the Hawks in two games to move on to Stage Two of the Pacific League Climax Series against the Fighters. The game (and Stage One) winning hit in Game 2 came in the form of a three run home run by Takeshi Yamasaki. Here's his 2009 BBM 2nd Version card (#625):
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Koichi Ogata
Koichi Ogata of the Carp played his last game yesterday. Ogata has spent part of the last 22 seasons playing for the ichi-gun Carp. He won five Gold Gloves and made one appearance in an All Star game. Here's a couple cards:
1991 BBM Nippon Series #S49 (the only time the Carp made the Series during his career):
2003 BBM 2nd Version #585:
2003 BBM Rookie Edition #115, showing him as he looked when drafted by the Carp back in the fall of 1986:
I'd have scanned some more cards, but it seems to me that a lot of the cards I have of him all have similar poses - following through after hitting the ball (like the Rookie Edition card above).
On a personal note, I just discovered something interesting from his Baseball Reference Bullpen biography - I've actually seen Ogata play. It turns out that in 1989 the Carp had some sort of working agreement with the independent Peninsula Pilots of the Carolina League (who are now the Wilmington Blue Rocks). The Carp sent three players to play for the woeful Pilots - Waturu Adachi, Tetsuya Katahira and Koichi Ogata. I had remembered seeing the Pilots play the Frederick Keys that summer and I dug up my scorecard - sure enough Ogata was batting second and playing second base (and wearing number 1 rather than his more familiar 9 or the 37 he wore early in his career). He went 0-2 with a walk. I also saw Katahira - he played left field and went 1-4 with an RBI. Nothing stands out in my mind about either of them - the only things I remembered about the game before I dug up the scorecard was it was a blowout (Frederick won 20-4) and that the Pilots had a position player come in to pitch (which was the first time I had ever seen that in person).
Of the three former Peninsula Pilots, Ogata by far had the longest career. Katahira played two more years with the Carp, mostly with the ni-gun team. Adachi played a few years longer, finishing his career with the Hawks in 1994. Here's Katahira's 1991 BBM card (#99, his only BBM card as far as I know) and Adachi's 1993 Tomy card (#165):
Oh, and I did check - none of these guys made the Pilot's baseball card set that year. Rats.
1991 BBM Nippon Series #S49 (the only time the Carp made the Series during his career):
2003 BBM 2nd Version #585:
2003 BBM Rookie Edition #115, showing him as he looked when drafted by the Carp back in the fall of 1986:
I'd have scanned some more cards, but it seems to me that a lot of the cards I have of him all have similar poses - following through after hitting the ball (like the Rookie Edition card above).
On a personal note, I just discovered something interesting from his Baseball Reference Bullpen biography - I've actually seen Ogata play. It turns out that in 1989 the Carp had some sort of working agreement with the independent Peninsula Pilots of the Carolina League (who are now the Wilmington Blue Rocks). The Carp sent three players to play for the woeful Pilots - Waturu Adachi, Tetsuya Katahira and Koichi Ogata. I had remembered seeing the Pilots play the Frederick Keys that summer and I dug up my scorecard - sure enough Ogata was batting second and playing second base (and wearing number 1 rather than his more familiar 9 or the 37 he wore early in his career). He went 0-2 with a walk. I also saw Katahira - he played left field and went 1-4 with an RBI. Nothing stands out in my mind about either of them - the only things I remembered about the game before I dug up the scorecard was it was a blowout (Frederick won 20-4) and that the Pilots had a position player come in to pitch (which was the first time I had ever seen that in person).
Of the three former Peninsula Pilots, Ogata by far had the longest career. Katahira played two more years with the Carp, mostly with the ni-gun team. Adachi played a few years longer, finishing his career with the Hawks in 1994. Here's Katahira's 1991 BBM card (#99, his only BBM card as far as I know) and Adachi's 1993 Tomy card (#165):
Oh, and I did check - none of these guys made the Pilot's baseball card set that year. Rats.
Mighty Atom
In case anyone didn't believe me the other day about why the Tokyo Yakult Swallows were once known as the Atoms, here's some proof. If you look carefully at this card of Shiro Takegami (#058 from the 2002 BBM All Time Heroes set), you'll notice Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) on his sleeve:
(This is actually the uniform of the Sankei Atoms.)
Last year, when the Swallows wore "Turn Back The Clock" uniforms for the Yakult Atoms, Mighty Atom again appeared on the sleeve. None of the cards showing the Atoms uniforms from last year's BBM 2nd Version set show it real well (especially since the Yakult uniforms had him appearing in an oval instead of just right on the sleeve like Sankei did). You can make it out on Shinya Miyamoto's card though (#618):
Just a little Astro Boy trivia with the new movie coming out shortly.
(This is actually the uniform of the Sankei Atoms.)
Last year, when the Swallows wore "Turn Back The Clock" uniforms for the Yakult Atoms, Mighty Atom again appeared on the sleeve. None of the cards showing the Atoms uniforms from last year's BBM 2nd Version set show it real well (especially since the Yakult uniforms had him appearing in an oval instead of just right on the sleeve like Sankei did). You can make it out on Shinya Miyamoto's card though (#618):
Just a little Astro Boy trivia with the new movie coming out shortly.
Card Of The Week October 11
Despite leading the Golden Eagles to the post-season for the first time in their five year history, the word out of Sendai is that Katsuya Nomura is out as Rakuten's manager after the season ends. Here's his 2008 BBM 1st Version card (#325):
Friday, October 9, 2009
New BBM Carp Anniversary Set
Well, I've been waiting all year for an Orix 20th Anniversary set from BBM, but I haven't seen one yet. Today, however, BBM released information about a Hiroshima Carp 60th Anniversary set. This is a pack based set that will be released in November. Following the pattern of every other recent Anniversary set, it has 99 regular cards broken into a six card "Carp History" subset, 66 cards of former players (both OB and active, former Carp - I'd expect to see both Hiroki Kuroda and Akira Etoh for example), 18 cards for the 2009 team and a nine card "Team Record" subset. There'll also be a nine card "Best 9" insert set and the usual autographed inserts.
This set will be the ninth team Anniversary set that BBM has done since 2004 (and the sixth in the last two years). The only teams left without an Anniversary set are Orix, the Fighters and the Golden Eagles.
This set will be the ninth team Anniversary set that BBM has done since 2004 (and the sixth in the last two years). The only teams left without an Anniversary set are Orix, the Fighters and the Golden Eagles.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Kazuyoshi Tatsunami
Kazuyoshi Tatsunami announced that he would be retiring after the end of the season. Tatsunami has been a fixture for Chunichi since his rookie of the year winning debut in 1988. He's a member of the Meikyukai, an 11 time All Star and a 5 time Gold Glove winner (at three different positions). He has the record for most career doubles in NPB. His entry at Baseball Reference's bullpen says that he is a player "who does everything well...but has no trademark skill to make him stand out from the crowd". The Dragons have only gone to eight Nippon Series in their history - he's been part of five of those teams (with the possibility of another this year).
Here's an assortment of cards from across his career:
Starting from the top is the 1988 Takara Dragons card, 1989 Mermaid Data (#3), 1994 BBM (#296), 2001 Upper Deck (#55), 2002 Calbee "Sayonora Home Run" (#SH-6), 2007 BBM Nippon Series (#S17) and 2009 BBM 1st Version (#306).
Here's an assortment of cards from across his career:
Starting from the top is the 1988 Takara Dragons card, 1989 Mermaid Data (#3), 1994 BBM (#296), 2001 Upper Deck (#55), 2002 Calbee "Sayonora Home Run" (#SH-6), 2007 BBM Nippon Series (#S17) and 2009 BBM 1st Version (#306).
Yakult 40th Anniversary
OK, back to the sets I got a few weeks ago...
The team that is now known as the Tokyo Yakult Swallows has an interesting history. It was born in 1950 as the Kokutetsu Swallows. In 1965, Kokutetsu sold the team to Sankei. The sale occurred during the season. As a result, the team that started the year as the Kokutetsu Swallows finished the year as the Sankei Swallows. Following that season, Sankei changed the name of the team to the Sankei Atoms, attempting to cash in on the popularity of the TV show Mighty Atom (aka Astro Boy). (The Atoms away uniforms from 1966 to 1970 featured Mighty Atom on their left sleeves.) In late 1968, Sankei sold the team to the Yakult company who fielded the team in 1969 as the Yakult Atoms. In 1974, the team changed their name back to the Swallows and in 2006 they added "Tokyo", despite the face that they had played in Tokyo since their beginning. The Swallows won their first Nippon Series in 1978 (in their first ever appearance) and had subsequent victories in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2001 (along with a loss to the Lions in the 1992 Series).
So to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Yakult's ownership of the Atoms/Swallows, BBM has released a 99 card anniversary set. This set follows the pattern that BBM has established over the last year - there's a six card "Victories" subset showing the five Nippon Series championships plus the 1992 Central League championship, a 61 card subset of former players, 26 cards for the 2009 team and a six card "Team Records Holder" subset.
As is customary, the former players include OB players (Tsutomo Wakamatsu, Atsuya Furuta, Katsuo Ohsugi, Takehiro Ikeyama, Tom O'Malley) as well as active players with other teams, be it NPB (Alex Ramirex, Kazuhisa Ishii), MLB (Akinori Iwamura) or other (Shingo Takatsu). Didn't see any really obvious players missing - might have been cool to have included Bob Horner, but he only spent one year in Japan. No cards of former managers were included (unless they played for the Swallows like Wakamatsu and Furuta), so the absence of Katsuya Nomura (who managed the team to three championships in the 1990's) isn't surprising (or unexpected, since he wasn't in the Hawks, Lions or Lotte anniversary sets either).
I guess my only disappointment with the set is that the only card showing someone in an Atoms uniform is Wakamatsu's. I think it would have been entertaining to have had a few others.
Here's some example cards. That's the "Victories" subset card for the 1997 Championship (#05); the former player cards for Tsutomu Wakamatsu (#52), Toru Sugiura (#53), Katsuo Ohsugi (#39), and Shingo Takatsu (#25); the 2009 Swallows card for manager Shigeru Takada (#68); and the "Team Records Holder" card for Keishi Asano (#95):
The team that is now known as the Tokyo Yakult Swallows has an interesting history. It was born in 1950 as the Kokutetsu Swallows. In 1965, Kokutetsu sold the team to Sankei. The sale occurred during the season. As a result, the team that started the year as the Kokutetsu Swallows finished the year as the Sankei Swallows. Following that season, Sankei changed the name of the team to the Sankei Atoms, attempting to cash in on the popularity of the TV show Mighty Atom (aka Astro Boy). (The Atoms away uniforms from 1966 to 1970 featured Mighty Atom on their left sleeves.) In late 1968, Sankei sold the team to the Yakult company who fielded the team in 1969 as the Yakult Atoms. In 1974, the team changed their name back to the Swallows and in 2006 they added "Tokyo", despite the face that they had played in Tokyo since their beginning. The Swallows won their first Nippon Series in 1978 (in their first ever appearance) and had subsequent victories in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2001 (along with a loss to the Lions in the 1992 Series).
So to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Yakult's ownership of the Atoms/Swallows, BBM has released a 99 card anniversary set. This set follows the pattern that BBM has established over the last year - there's a six card "Victories" subset showing the five Nippon Series championships plus the 1992 Central League championship, a 61 card subset of former players, 26 cards for the 2009 team and a six card "Team Records Holder" subset.
As is customary, the former players include OB players (Tsutomo Wakamatsu, Atsuya Furuta, Katsuo Ohsugi, Takehiro Ikeyama, Tom O'Malley) as well as active players with other teams, be it NPB (Alex Ramirex, Kazuhisa Ishii), MLB (Akinori Iwamura) or other (Shingo Takatsu). Didn't see any really obvious players missing - might have been cool to have included Bob Horner, but he only spent one year in Japan. No cards of former managers were included (unless they played for the Swallows like Wakamatsu and Furuta), so the absence of Katsuya Nomura (who managed the team to three championships in the 1990's) isn't surprising (or unexpected, since he wasn't in the Hawks, Lions or Lotte anniversary sets either).
I guess my only disappointment with the set is that the only card showing someone in an Atoms uniform is Wakamatsu's. I think it would have been entertaining to have had a few others.
Here's some example cards. That's the "Victories" subset card for the 1997 Championship (#05); the former player cards for Tsutomu Wakamatsu (#52), Toru Sugiura (#53), Katsuo Ohsugi (#39), and Shingo Takatsu (#25); the 2009 Swallows card for manager Shigeru Takada (#68); and the "Team Records Holder" card for Keishi Asano (#95):
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