Sunday, January 3, 2021

Card Of The Week January 3

This is not a card that you'd probably expect to be seeing on this blog as not only does it show players on an MLB team but it shows players on my least favorite MLB team.  But obviously these aren't really Yankee players - it's a promo for the movie "Mr. Baseball" that Upper Deck included as an insert in their "High Series" packs in 1992.  If you're not familiar with the movie, it stars Tom Selleck as an aging baseball player named Jack Elliot who gets released by the Yankees when they call up a hot rookie (played by Frank Thomas and nothing seemed as frightening in 1992 as seeing Frank Thomas in a Yankee uniform - thank God that never happened for real) and ends up going to Japan to play for the Chunichi Dragons.  East meets West conflict ensues somewhat predictably but all-in-all it's a pretty good movie.  There's a lot of good footage of early 90's NPB action and some fun cameos by former gaijin like Leon Lee and Brad Lesley.  Plus you get to see what Nagoya Stadium looked like before the Dragons moved to the Dome and the ballpark was downsized for the Dragons farm team.


Now I've known that this card has existed for years but I was never all that interested in picking up a copy of it until I saw the back of it:


Yep, Jack-san himself decked out in a Dragons uniform (well, at least a Dragons hat).  Since the only other Dragons Jack Elliot card I've ever seen has somewhat dubious origins, I thought it would be fun to own this one.  I picked it up from someone on Ebay recently.

3 comments:

SumoMenkoMan said...

Awesome!! I remember seeing that card at my neighbors house a few years ago and thinking I should pick a copy up someday. I did not realize that Tom was left handed...or at least he bats left handed.

Fuji said...

I wrote about that card a few years ago. My post had to do with celebrities playing sports. Anyways... never saw the movie, but now that I've discovered it's about Selleck playing in Japan... I might check it out.

Sean said...

I kind of remember this card from back in 1992, though I don't remember if I ever owned a copy of it.

Now though, I want it, Nagoya related stuff almost never appears on MLB cards.