Fuji Film Photos?

I don't usually blog about things I don't actually own but I saw these oddball Sadaharu Oh items on Ebay recently and I decided I should write about them, even though they were priced higher than I was willing to pay for them.  Here they are:

All three items appear to be a Fujicolor snapshot print.  There's no indication in the auctions as to how big they are.  The top one is from 1977 (that's when Oh hit home run 756 and the photo is labeled "Fujicolor 77") while the other two are from 1980.  Based on the other photos in the auctions, the 1977 photo has a blank back while the two from 1980 just have the Fujicolor file markings.  Obviously the 1977 is being sold with a holder - I don't know if the 1980 cards were sold separately with holders or sold as part of a group.

The two photos from 1980 are from the Central League's East-West All Star game that was held after the season every year from 1979 to 1990 (except for 1989).  The East team was put together from the rosters of the Giants, Swallows and Whales while the West team was assembled from the Dragons, Carp and Tigers.  The teams wore special uniforms in 1979 and 1980 but after that they just wore their standard uniforms.

The 1980 games was played at Nagoya Stadium on November 8th.  Oh had announced his retirement four days earlier.  He had four hits in the game including a home run and was named the MVP.  (I don't know if the photo of him batting with Tatsuhiko Kimata of the Dragons catching is from the at bat he homered in).  They held a retirement ceremony for him and Morimichi Takagi of the Dragons after the game.  This was commemorated in a card in the 2009 BBM Sadaharu Oh Memorial set (#55):

Oddly enough this was not his final game - he played in an exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers in Kumamoto on November 16th.  He homered in his final at bat.

The book History Of Uniform has a page for the uniforms worn in the 1979 and 1980 games:

One additional piece of trivia - the Pacific League did a similar East-West All Star game.  They played it in 1981 and 1982 and then from 1988 until 2006, skipping 2004.  Initially the East teams were the Orions (later Marines), the Fighters and the Lions while the West teams were the Hawks, the Buffaloes (Kintetsu) and Braves (later BlueWave).  After the Kintetsu-Orix "merger" and the addition of the Eagles following the 2004 season, the Lions moved into the West teams and the Eagles joined the East teams.