Like the first set, it's an eclectic group of players. Shigeo Nagashima and Sachio Kinugasa are the biggest names in the set. The set contains players who played in the 1930's (Shigeru Chiba) as well as guys who just retired recently (Ken Suzuki, Shigeki Sano, Tomohiro Kuroki). Here's a (somewhat) translated list of players. Like the first set, since I don't know what the criteria was for including a player in the set, I can't say if there was someone obvious excluded. I will point out that neither set contains either Masaichi Kaneda or Katsuya Nomura - I'd venture a guess that these are the two biggest names who are not in either set.
The cards have the same design as the first set. There's a smattering of black and white photos in the set, primarily for the older players but occasionally for someone more recent (Shinji Hata). Here's some examples - the cards of Shigeo Nagashima (#79), Yasumitsu Toyoda (#145) and Shigeru Chiba (#77):
Like the first set, I'm not really sure what to make of this set. The two sets together still aren't a particularly good overview of Japanese Baseball History (although a much better representation than BBM's NPB 70th Anniversary set in 2004). They're OK, but I'm not sure I'll pick up a third set if Epoch makes one.
8 comments:
The problem with these NPB nostalgia sets, in my humble opinion, is that they do not tell you when the photo is from. They require collectors to do the detective work. For example, I figure the Shigeru Chiba card is from about 1947 to 1950, when the Giants had a squared "G" on a white cap ("The History of Uniform" [sic], 2005, page 023). Chiba played for the Giants from 1938 to 1956 (japanesebaseballdaily.com Data Warehouse). I do like the sets, when I can get them.
The Toyoda card photo is about 1954-1959: Old English style "Lions" on front, no number, single black ring on sleeve end. Nagashima's card is hard to narrow down: the home uniform sleeve with fat letters and double ring lasted from 1961 to 1974, and he was with the Giants that entire period.
Hmm, I was thinking the Toyoda shot was from 1960-61 - there's an Old English style "L" on the hat rather than the interlocked N and L worn from '54 to '59. There's no visible number on the left sleeve, but since it was a single number (7), it's possible that it's just obscured. But I agree with you completely on Chiba and Nagashima.
I also agree with you that it's a lot of fun to figure out when photos were probably taken by looking up stuff in "The History Of Uniform". I've run into problems some times trying to date color bromides from the late 40's and early 50's by looking up the uniforms - the colors don't match. I've been wondering if whoever hand colored them didn't use the correct colors. What do you think?
I have menko cards in my collection that have wrong colors for hats and uniforms.
I missed the "L" on the cap, and I guess the sleeve number was obscured by a wrinkle.
Would you give us the "History Of Uniform" website. I know most teams uniform changes, and would love to research this site for specific years.
Sorry, don't know of a link for "The History Of Uniform" - it's a book published by BBM in 2005. Bill Ellis found a link for it on Amazon's Japanese site.
Actually, the copyright for "The History of Uniform" says (C)2005 Ritomo Tsunashima / Hiroshi Watatani. I see no mention of BBM on the front or back title pages. There is The Ritomo's Baseball Club web site at http://www.ritomo.jp/rbc/index.html. It has some of the same uniform images as the book, under the header "Uniform Story."
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