Card Of The Week April 28

For the past eight years or so, an outfit called variously "Hits", "TIC" or "216 Co., Ltd." has issued sets of  "mini colored paper" or "mini shikishi" - basically oversized (5 1/2 inches wide by 4 3/4 inches high).  The sets are generally (but not alway) small (20-ish card) team sets with the teams in question usually being the Hawks, Swallows, Carp and Baystars.  I kind of pooh-pooh these cards some but Ryan had sent me some a few years back and I was surprised to discover they were more attractive then I thought.  I'll have to keep an eye out for more of them when I'm in Japan next month.

I thought I'd share this 2019 "mini colored paper" card of a guy who had a very good first month in MLB - Shota Imanaga of the Cubs.  He's made five starts and gone 4-0 with 28 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.  He's only walked three and given up five runs although only three of those were earned.  His ERA is a microscopic 0.98.  I don't know if he'll be able to continue this success but it's been fun to watch so far.