Florida Project Completed

In March of 1975, the Yomuri Giants traveled to Vero Beach, Florida, as the spring training guests of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  It would neither be the first nor the last time the Dodgers would host the Giants for spring training - they had done so in 1961, 1967, 1971 and would do so again in 1981.  What stands out about 1975 is that Calbee devoted a number of cards in that year's set to the Giants' visit.

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect the reason behind Calbee's decision was that it was Shigeo Nagashima's debut as Giants manager.  Nagashima had retired the previous October and was named manager of the team a month or so later, taking over from Tetsuharu Kawakami who'd been at the helm since 1961.  

Calbee, as they continue to do now, issued their 1975 card set in separate series.  Unlike they do now, there were quite a few series in 1975.  And to be completely accurate, the numbering of what I'm referring to as the "1975 set" actually started in 1974 so the set is known as the "1974/75 Calbee set".  The fourteenth series for this set (cards 648 to 719) was labeled "Opening Series" and mostly contained cards depicting the opening games of the 1975 NPB season.  I say mostly because 22 cards of this series - cards 693 to 714 - are dedicated to the Giants' visit to Florida.*

* Series 13 was called "Spring Camp" and featured photos of NPB teams during spring training.  I suspect that the Giants' Florida trip wasn't in that series due to the amount of time it took to get the photos from the US but that's just a wild guess on my part.

I had started seriously trying to get all of these cards a few years back and made steady progress on them.  I picked up four of them on my last trip to Japan and returned home from that trip only needing one.  It took me another two years to track the last one down and I definitely overpaid for it* but the subset is finally finished.  To celebrate, I thought I'd show all 22 cards - it'll be the first time I've done a post will all of the cards.

* I should probably verify what I'm about to say with Sean but my gut feeling is that most mid-70's Calbee cards are either fairly common (and sell for $30-ish and lower) or rare and expensive (like in the $100's of dollars).  This last card wasn't really rare but I ended up spending $50 on it plus another $10-ish for shipping.

I'll show both the front and back of each card although I'm not going to try to translate the backs - I'll leave that for Nippon Baseball Retro.  I will attempt to at least summarize it a little bit.

Card #693 - Yomiuri Giants

This first card shows the Giants jogging on the warning track at a ballpark.  From the Canadian flag in the background, I'm pretty sure this is Daytona City Island Ballpark, the spring training home of the Montreal Expos in the 1970's.  The text on the back of the card suggests that this Dodgertown at Vero Beach but it doesn't look like Holman Stadium (the ballpark at Vero Beach) and there's no reason they'd have been flying a Canadian flag there.  The text also mentions that they are 13,000 kilometers from Tokyo.

You might notice that there are some dates on the card (or not - I realize the scans of the backs came out kind of faint) - the Giants were in Florida from the first of March, 1975 (showa 50) to the 17th.  Each card has this line of text on it.

Card #694 - Yomiuri Giants

This card shows the Giants lined up along the first baseline of what I think is that same ballpark as the previous card.  The back of the card again implies that this is Vero Beach.  The text says something about how the facility has changed its appearance in the four years since the Giants' last visit in 1971 and how they were welcomed by Peter O'Malley.

Card #695 - Sadaharu Oh

This is my favorite card from this subset.  It shows Sadaharu Oh taking batting practice with a bunch of Atlanta Braves players crowded around the cage.  From the stands in the background, I think this photo was taken at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium, the spring training home for the Braves at the time.  The back talks a little about how the Giants were getting ready to play the Braves and that the major leaguers were interested in seeing Oh hit.

The title on the back of the card - the bit of text below the Giants flag - says "Major Leaguers are also fans of the Doggy".  I had asked Sean to translate the back of this card for me when I first got it and he explained the title:

The short story is that the character for his last name Oh is actually pronounced "Wang" in Chinese, which sounds very similar to "Wan", the word Japanese kids use for doggy.  So they started calling him that (adding "chan" which is a sort of term of endearment you usually add after the name of a child or something) and it stuck. Amazing what you learn from baseball cards. 

Card #696 - Shigeo Nagashima/Shoji Sadaoka

Shoji Sadaoka was Yomiuri's first pick in the 1974 draft so this would be his first spring training.  The back of the card says something about him learning about pitching by watching major leaguers in action.

Card #697 - Shigeru Takada

This card shows outfielder Shigeru Takada in the batting cage.  I think the back is saying something about him trying to improve his hitting while in Dodgertown.

Card #698 - Shigeo Nagashima

The back of this card says something about this being Nagashima's fourth trip to Vero Beach.  It also mentions that the temperature was 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) and everybody's gotten a tan and looked strong.

This was the last card I needed to complete this subset.  It was somewhat underwheming.

Card #699 - Isao Shibata

Another outfielder in the batting cage.  The back mentions that he's grown a tan after coming to America.

Card #700 - Sadaharu Oh

The card back mentions that local TV stations and news photographers were following Oh around.

Card #701 - Toshimitsu Suetsugu

Yet another outfielder in the batting cage.  The back of the card puts a lot of pressure on Suetsugu's shoulders, saying that since Nagashima has retired, "the fate of the Giants' batting lineup" now rests on his hitting prowess and that he must continue to have a high batting average.  It goes on to say that his personal goals are to hit .300 again (like he did in 1974) and to win the RBI title.  Well, not to dump on him too much, but he only hit .252 in 1975 and his 46 RBIs were 50 behind Oh's league leading total.  If the fate of the lineup truly did rest on him, it explains why the Giants finished last for the first time ever that season.

Card #702 - Sadaharu Oh

Another card of Oh in the batting cage and another one of my favorites from this subset.  The back of the card again talks about how he was hounded by photographers in camp.

Card #703 - Kazumi Takahashi

This is another favorite and it shows pitcher Kazumi Takahashi facing an unidentified Montreal Expos batter at what I'm again pretty sure is the Expos spring training home of Daytona City Island Ballpark (note the Expos logo on one of the outfield signs).  The card back says that he "delivered an outstanding performance in a friendly match against the Expos".

I'd love to see a box score from this game and maybe narrow down who the Expos batter was.  I mean, it's probably not but wouldn't it be wild if it was Gary Carter?

Card #704 - Shigeo Nagashima

Another not super exciting card of Nagashima.  The back says that the warm weather in Florida made him unable to sit still and that his expression showed his determination.

Card #705 - Masaru Tomita

This card shows Tomita batting in a game against the Dodgers at Vero Beach.  The back of the card talks about how there are high expectations for Tomita because he's expected to replace Nagashima in the line up as the team's everyday third baseman.  Like Suetsugu, I don't want to dump on Tomita too much but it should be pointed out that a month later, the Giants signed Dave Johnson to take over third base so I don't think Tomita was living up to those expectations.  He ended up hitting just .189 on the season and was dealt to the Fighters with Takahashi in the off season in the trade that brought Isao Harimoto to the Giants.

Card #706 - Sadaharu Oh

I'm probably wrong on this, but I feel like there aren't many cards of Oh showing him fielding.  The back of the card again talks about how warm it is in Florida and implies that that's why Oh is playing without his hat on.

Card #707 - Tsuneo Horiuchi

The front of this card shows pitcher Tsuneo Horiuchi in action and the back says that it's against the Dodgers in Vero Beach.  Yomiuri won the game 5-3 thanks to Horiuchi's "strong pitching performance" although it also mentions that Davey Lopes stole two bases in the game.  I assume that's Oh playing first in the background.  

Card #708 - Shitoshi Sekimoto

This is another case where the sunny scenario described on the back of the card didn't pan out.  It says that Sekimoto arrived in Vero Beach with the best ERA (which I think references his team leading ERA in 1974) and was throwing with "great confidence, seemingly drawn in by the cheerful atmosphere and getting in shape at a rapid pace".  Sekimoto would go 0-4 on the season with an ERA of 3.97 and got into an on-field fight with Morimichi Takagi of the Dragons that started a brawl between the two teams.  He was traded to the Lions after the season, making him the third player in this subset to be dealt away after 1975.

Card #709 - Shigeo Nagashima

After all the cards that talked about how warm it was, it's kind of surprising to have a card showing Nagashima in a somewhat heavy coat, although it's possible that it's just a windbreaker.  The back of the card talks about how much he likes the lushness of the Florida flora, especially the orange groves.

Card #710 - Kazumasa Kono

This was a card that was a mystery for the longest time - who was the Dodgers coach working with the Giants' infielders?  I finally figured out a few years back that it was Stan Wasiak, the manager of the Dodgers' Triple-A team in Albuquerque.  The card ostensibly is for Giants infielder Kazumasa Kono, the guy wearing #29 who's taking a throw in the middle of the card.  That's reserve infielder Takeshi Ueda (#2) next in line with someone I think is Tomita to the left of him - he was the only other infielder with a uniform number in the 20's (#25).  The back of the card mentions that the infielders were going under "intensive training" under the eye of the Dodgers' Triple-A manager (another clue that it's Wasiak but some of the card backs have been inaccurate so I didn't want to take it at face value) and that Kono's strong arm was considered ready for Major League Baseball.  Kono, of course, would never play in MLB but he would play for the Giants for another 12 years.

Card #711 - Shigeo Nagashima

Another card of Nagashima.  This time it looks like he's hitting grounders.  The back says that while this is his fourth visit to Vero Beach, he had "never arrived with such a grim determination as this year".  He had "a mission to build a new Giants team" and "a new fire has begun to burn".  As I mentioned previously, the Giants finished last for the first time in 1975 so it certainly was a "new Giants team" but not perhaps what was intended.

Card #712 - Sadaharu Oh

This is the last of the five cards of Oh in this subset.  The palm tree in the background helps make it clear that he was in Florida.  The back of the card talks about his plans for the season.  Oh says "for the new Giants, I will hit like crazy again this year.  The training at Vero Beach was very fruitful and I will continue to improve my batting."  While he would have a very good year in 1975, hitting .285 with 33 home runs and 96 RBIs, it would be the only year of the five years between 1973 and 1977 in which he did not win the Central League MVP award.  In each of the other four years, he'd hit over .300, with at least 49 home runs and 100 RBIs.  

Card #713 - Shigeo Nagashima

This is a card with another mystery - who's the guy Nagashima's talking with?  The back of the card says that "Nagashima is seen chatting endlessly with the Dodgers coaches" but it doesn't say who the coach is.  It's possible that it's Wasiak again although his hair looked lighter in color back on card #710.  The back goes on to mention that the camp is steadily yielding results and that even when it rains, it quickly clears up.  "Nagashima's face lights up with a smile as he enjoys the pleasant weather."  (And looking closely at the back of the card, I suspect that at one point this particular card was pasted into a book.)

Card #714 - Shigeo Nagashima

The final card is another one of Nagashima, his seventh in the subset.  The back tries to put the 1975 camp in perspective, mentioning that the Giants "developed new strengths" on their previous visits to Vero Beach in 1961, 1967 and 1971.  The Giants won Nippon Series championships in all three of those seasons (and would again after their fifth and final visit in 1981) and the card ends on a hopeful note about the "Nagashima Giants" ushering in a new era by starting their campaign at the same place.  As previously mentioned, the Giants not only did not win the Series in 1975, but they finished last for the first and, so far, only time in their history.

As far as I can tell, Calbee did not include any cards in their 1981 set that were dedicated to the Giants camp in Vero Beach that spring.  And while I've seen a number of cards over the years that I'm fairly confident feature photos taken in the US, this is the largest subset I'm aware of that clearly and unambiguously features such photos.