Thursday, November 14, 2024

Stadium Mug Shots

I poke fun at Topps' NPB offerings all the time so it's kind of surprising when I occasionally end up trying to finish some oddball Topps related item.  One such item was in last year's 206 set.  I had mocked this set as a mug shot set but I did like the parallels that showed the player's image in front of the outside of their home ballpark.  I eventually got one of these for each team and stadium - I think I got the last couple I needed at Coletre last May but I can't remember now which ones they were.

I decided before I left for Japan than I was going to try to do my own version of these cards at each ballpark I went to on the trip.  So without further ado, here's one of the "stadium background" parallels for each ballpark along with a selfie I took at the same ballpark:

#43


#134


#62


#197


#175


#107


#176


#102


#130


#165


#121


I attempted to get a similar shot as the card but I usually hadn't looked at the card recently and I didn't always have a lot of time to take the selfie.  Plus I'm really bad at taking selfies.

I didn't make it up to Hokkaido so I wasn't able to recreate this one outside the Fighters ballpark:

#54

I did, however, take selfies outside the two non-NPB ballparks I went to.  First was Kusanagi Stadium in Shizuoka:

The second was Ota Stadium in Tokyo:


And with that, my posts about my trip to Japan last May are finally done.  It only took me nearly six months to finish!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice pics! Randon Question ... how many stadiums are covered, "domed" stadiums and how many are artificial turf?

NPB Card Guy said...

Thanks!

There are six teams with domes - the Dragons, Hawks, Fighters, Buffaloes, Lions and Giants. Two of those domes - the Hawks and Fighters - have retractable roofs. The Lions dome is open on the sides - they added the roof to their existing ballpark in 1999.

All of the domes except for the Fighter's have artificial turf. The ballparks for the Swallows, Baystars and Marines also have turf. The other four parks - the Tigers, Carp, Eagles and Fighters - have natural grass.

Unknown said...

Wow, great information. You probably had this info in your brain, right? Thanks! Scott P.S. Is there a stadium that is considered the best?

NPB Card Guy said...

Had to look up the turf actually.

"Best" is subjective but Koshien and Jingu are iconic and the two newest stadiums - the Carp and Fighters - are considered very popular. I also like the Eagles and Baystars parks quite a bit.

Sean said...

Ha, those mugshots are fantastic! You should do a set of cards of yourself :)

NPB Card Guy said...

Thanks, but that sounds like a really bad idea