Sunday, July 28, 2013

Card Of The Week July 28

It used to be fairly common for an MLB team to tour Japan following the season.  In the 31 years from 1953 to 1984 there were 13 times when an MLB team came to Japan (and once when the Giants came in the 1970 preseason).  Following the Orioles tour in 1984 it appears that the team tours have been discontinued and replaced with the bi-annual MLB All Star tours which started in 1986 and I think stopped after 2004.  The only other games between MLB and NBP teams appears to now be some exhibition games against the Tigers or Giants when MLB has opened the season in Japan (in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012).

There aren't that many cards that I'm aware of that feature any action from any of these tours.  There's a Broder set for the Mets tour in 1974 and a handful of NST cards from 1975 showing scenes from a couple earlier tours.  There are some card sets that coincide with a tour but since they are meant to be sold during the tour, they don't show action from the tour itself.

Here's a card from the afore mentioned NST set that shows Shigeo Nagashima with Boog Powell of the Orioles during the O's tour of Japan in 1971:

#56

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