Giant Baba Menko Card

I got a message a few weeks back from someone on Reddit who was asking me if I had any suggestions about where they might be able to track down Giant Baba's menko card.

Wait, Giant Baba had a menko card?

Let me explain who this is.  Shohei "Giant" Baba was a famous pro wrestler in Japan, starting in the 1960's and continuing until his untimely death at age 61 from colon cancer in 1999.  His nickname came from the fact that he was about six feet, ten inches tall.  Before he became a wrestler, however, he was a baseball player!  He dropped out of high school to sign with the Yomiuri Giants  in 1954 and spent five seasons (1955-59) with the club.  He spent most of his time on the farm team, only getting in three games with the top team in 1957, going 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA in seven innings, striking out three while only giving up five hits and one run along with no walks.  Oddly enough, his one loss was Shigeru Sugishita's 200th career win.  After being let go by the Giants, he was picked up by the Taiyo Whales but he suffered an arm injury when he stumbled in the shower and shattered a glass door.  He needed 17 stitches and had issues with numbness in his fingers which ultimately resulted in his retirement from baseball.  His wrestling career began shortly afterwards.

Given his lack of time at the ichi-gun level, I think I can be forgiven for thinking there weren't any baseball cards of him issued during his career.  I had thought that the only card showing him as a baseball player was from the 2000 BBM All Japan Pro-Wrestling set which had a large subset dedicated to him including this card:

2000 BBM All Japan Pro-Wrestling #64

The message from the Reddit member explained that they'd come across the card in an old Prestige Collectibles Auction.  The card is from a set that Engel refers to as "JCM 36: 1958 Yamakatsu Black and White w/Blue Diagonal Line Back"  Here's the front and back of the card (the images were swiped from the auction site):

Gary lists the value of the card at $800 even though it sold at the auction for $172 (although that was in May of 2013).

Gary does list three other cards for Baba in his latest guide but those cards are all from multi-sport sets that depict him as a wrestler, not a baseball player.