Last weekend's episode of NPR's show "
Only A Game" featured
a segment on Gail Hopkins, who spent three years in NPB in the mid 1970's. I thought I'd do a quick summary of what Japanese cards exist for Hopkins.
Hopkins spent his first two Japanese seasons with the Carp in 1975 & 76. He has a ton of cards in the 1974-75 and 1975-76 Calbee sets -
five in the 1974-75 set and
27(!) in the 1975-76 set. He also had a card in the one of the
Broder sets (JA5) from 1975. He moved to the Nankai Hawks for his final season in 1977 - as far as I can tell he only had one card in 1977 in the Calbee "Osaka Series" set. From the name of the set I assume that it shows him as a Hawk (since the Hawks played in Osaka at the time).
I only have two of the 33 Calbee cards that were issued for him, both from the 1975-76 set:
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7nAhL8eNBiA/WSx_5SYMYDI/AAAAAAAAQ-o/FnHJd_xHp-M6momJiXvPrgM8aF_NqUUKwCLcB/s400/7576%2BCalbee%2BHopkins%2B1.jpeg) |
1975/76 Calbee #286 |
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yye5Wcb_vJo/WSx_5q2ulpI/AAAAAAAAQ-s/-IFtueR-0lolaE4lgQVfJpygJW2xN_sFgCLcB/s400/7576%2BCalbee%2BHopkins%2B2.jpeg) |
1975/76 Calbee #320 |
I'm not positive but I believe that both of these cards feature photos taken during the 1975 Nippon Series as the catcher in both shots looks like he's wearing a Hankyu Braves uniform. The orange grandstand in the background looks like
Hanyku Nishinomiya Stadium, home of the Braves.
Since his retirement as a player Hopkins has only appeared in a couple of BBM's OB sets. He was in two of the Carp specific sets - the 2009 Carp 60th Anniversary set and the 2015 Carp Legend set - and last winter's Time Travel 1975 set:
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KQt-iU9GCKA/WSx_48e3aTI/AAAAAAAAQ-c/_xzldZ8RC2EjIpWASBMSn_oYpLwYoM8hgCLcB/s400/09%2BCarp%2B60th%2BHopkins.jpeg) |
2009 BBM 60th Anniverary #36 |
![](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EKUgkthorpw/WSx_4xppEaI/AAAAAAAAQ-k/isDk5Ygh59oMC43f5GpqjVW7fQuvzka3wCLcB/s400/15%2BBBM%2BCL%2BHopkins.jpeg) |
2015 BBM Carp Legends #44 |
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZT8vuPM1mhc/WSx_4zPgIuI/AAAAAAAAQ-g/QI90jVAUUCMA4BSHdSaX4x4WcLshmOW1gCLcB/s400/17%2BBBM%2BTT75%2BHopkins.jpeg) |
2017 BBM Time Travel 1975 #51 |
H/T to
NPB on Reddit's tweet.
1 comment:
Some sweet cards here, some af these sets are new to me. I remember Hopkins most from his 1970 Topps card with the huge glove dominating the photo.
Post a Comment