Sunday, December 13, 2015
Card Of The Week December 13
Last week Hisashi Iwakuma, most recently with the Mariners but previously with the Buffaloes and Eagles in the Pacific League, signed a three year deal with the Dodgers. Here's his "Team Hero" insert card from the 2005 BBM 2nd Version set (#TH6):
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Yoshinobu Takahashi
Giants outfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi retired at the end of the 2015 season after being offered the team managerial position following Tatsunori Hara's resignation. Takahashi was the number one pick of the Giants in the fall 1997 draft out of Keio University of the Tokyo Big Six league.
He had a strong rookie season in 1998, hitting .300 with 19 home runs. I think he finished second in the Rookie Of The Year vote to Kenshin Kawakami of the Dragons. He followed that up in 1999 with what probably ended up being the best season of his career - hitting .315 with 34 home runs and 98 RBIs. His 1999 season ended a few weeks early, however, after he broke his collar bone after colliding with the outfield fence in Nagoya Dome. This would be what they called "foreshadowing" in my high school English classes.
Takahashi put up very good numbers for the Giants over the next five seasons, hitting over .300 every year except 2000 and hitting a least 26 home runs each season except 2002. He started to miss time due to various injuries, however, starting in 2002. He would play 11 more seasons after 2004 but he would only play in more than 100 game in three of those seasons.
He missed about a third of both the 2005 and 2006 season due to various injuries and surgeries - shoulder (or elbow) surgery before the 2005 season, ankle surgery before the 2006 season and hurting his side diving for a fly ball during the 2006 season. He made a complete comeback in 2007 - playing the entire season and hitting .308 with 35 home runs (his career high). Injuries returned in 2008, however, as he missed about a third of the season again (including the Nippon Series) with back problems. He missed almost the entire 2009 season with back and hip issues. He recovered enough to appear in over 100 games for the Giants in 2010 but he broke a rib early in the 2011 season and...well, you get the idea. He'd get healthy for a while and then he'd get injured again. Played a full season in 2012, had a strained left calf in 2013, broken finger in 2014, etc. It was pretty apparent by the end of the 2015 season that his days as a player with the Giants were over and press reports indicated that he was mulling over retirement or attempting to continue his career with another team when the Giants offered him the managerial job.
Takahashi made the Best 9 team twice in this career (1999, 2007) and won seven Golden Glove awards (1998 - 2003, 2007). He made the All Star team 9 times (1998 - 2004, 2007, 2012).
He played in four Nippon Series for the Giants - 2000, 2002, 2012 and 2013 - winning in all of them except the last one. He missed the Series in both 2008 and 2009 due to injuries.
Takahashi played for the Japan National Team three different times during the prime of his career - for the 2001 Baseball World Cup, the 2003 Asian Games and the 2004 Olympics.
I don't have either his BBM (1998 #345) or Calbee (1998 #084) rookie cards but I have other cards that show both of them:
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| 2011 BBM Legend Of Tokyo Big Six #091 |
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| 1999 BBM Mr. Giants #G94 |
He had a strong rookie season in 1998, hitting .300 with 19 home runs. I think he finished second in the Rookie Of The Year vote to Kenshin Kawakami of the Dragons. He followed that up in 1999 with what probably ended up being the best season of his career - hitting .315 with 34 home runs and 98 RBIs. His 1999 season ended a few weeks early, however, after he broke his collar bone after colliding with the outfield fence in Nagoya Dome. This would be what they called "foreshadowing" in my high school English classes.
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| 1998 BBM #547 |
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| 1999 Calbee #268 (Signature Parallel) |
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| 2000 Giants Victory Road #15 |
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| 2001 Calbee #003 |
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| 2002 Calbee #103 |
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| 2009 BBM 1st Version #245 |
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| 2014 BBM Giants #G106 |
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| 2015 Calbee #133 |
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| 2004 BBM 1st Version #GG19 |
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| 2007 BBM All Stars #A66 |
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| 2012 BBM Nippon Series #S29 |
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| 2002 BBM 1st Verison #413 |
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| 2010 BBM 20th Anniversary #116 (Back) |
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| 2012 Calbee #M-34 (reprint of 1998 Calbee #084) |
Monday, December 7, 2015
Latest New Stuff
A couple new sets have been announced in the last few weeks:
- 2016 will mark the 80th Anniversary of the Dragons and BBM is sneaking out an Anniversary set this month. This will be a pack based set featuring 81 cards in the base set, a 15 card insert set called "Dragons Heroes" and the usual myriad of autograph cards. Like the Tigers 80th Anniversary set from last spring, this set is smaller than the two previous Anniversary sets for the team - the 2006 70th and the 2011 75th. The set will be released on December 11 (this Friday).
- BBM is also releasing a set dedicated to Sawamura Award winners this month. This will be a 38 card box set called "Spirit Of Legend". There will be 36 cards in the base set plus two "special" cards which could be insert cards, parallel versions of insert cards or autographed cards. I think all the cards in the base set depict Sawamura Award winners but the insert cards include potential Sawamura Award winners "in the near future" Shohei Ohtani and Shintaro Fujinami. The set comes out on December 21.
- In February Sports Graphic Number is putting out a set dedicated to Hiroki Kuroda of the Carp. This is a pack based set that has 45 cards in its base set, 18 insert cards plus nine photo cards and autograph and memorabilia cards.
- There was a set released in the last few weeks that I think I neglected to mention previously. The set is a "Fans Choice" set for the Swallows where Swallows fans have picked three players to be featured in the set. The three players are Tetsuto Yamada, Shingo Kawabata and Shohei Tateyama. The base set has 45 cards and there are 15 insert cards plus a number of possible autograph and memorabilia cards. There was a similar set released last year that I mistakenly thought was released by Sports Graphic Number as it was very similar to the style of their sets. I think the set is actually being released by the Swallows themselves. You can see all the cards here.
- 2016 will mark the 80th Anniversary of the Dragons and BBM is sneaking out an Anniversary set this month. This will be a pack based set featuring 81 cards in the base set, a 15 card insert set called "Dragons Heroes" and the usual myriad of autograph cards. Like the Tigers 80th Anniversary set from last spring, this set is smaller than the two previous Anniversary sets for the team - the 2006 70th and the 2011 75th. The set will be released on December 11 (this Friday).
- BBM is also releasing a set dedicated to Sawamura Award winners this month. This will be a 38 card box set called "Spirit Of Legend". There will be 36 cards in the base set plus two "special" cards which could be insert cards, parallel versions of insert cards or autographed cards. I think all the cards in the base set depict Sawamura Award winners but the insert cards include potential Sawamura Award winners "in the near future" Shohei Ohtani and Shintaro Fujinami. The set comes out on December 21.
- In February Sports Graphic Number is putting out a set dedicated to Hiroki Kuroda of the Carp. This is a pack based set that has 45 cards in its base set, 18 insert cards plus nine photo cards and autograph and memorabilia cards.
- There was a set released in the last few weeks that I think I neglected to mention previously. The set is a "Fans Choice" set for the Swallows where Swallows fans have picked three players to be featured in the set. The three players are Tetsuto Yamada, Shingo Kawabata and Shohei Tateyama. The base set has 45 cards and there are 15 insert cards plus a number of possible autograph and memorabilia cards. There was a similar set released last year that I mistakenly thought was released by Sports Graphic Number as it was very similar to the style of their sets. I think the set is actually being released by the Swallows themselves. You can see all the cards here.
Card Of The Week December 6
Today is December 7 which of course is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I was surprised a few years ago (although I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me that it was likely) to discover that at least one Japanese professional baseball player took part in the attack - Eikichi Nagamochi.
Nogamochi was drafted into the Imperial Navy in 1939 at age 21. He was stationed on the aircraft carrier Shokaku which was one of the six carriers used in the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is unclear to me what his role on the carrier was - the Google Translation of his Japanese wikipedia page simply says he was "aboard" the carrier while his entry in Japan Baseball Daily (accessed via the Wayback Machine) implies that he was a flyer. The Shokaku was sunk by a US submarine during the Battle Of The Philippine Sea in 1944 - Nagamochi was either onboard when it was sunk (Wikipedia) or his plane was shot down (Japan Baseball Daily) - either way, he spent two hours in the water before being rescued. He suffered burns on his face due to oil in the water with him that apparently required hospitalization in Kure back in the home islands.
When professional baseball started up again after the war, he joined the Tokyo Senators, the team that is now the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He stayed with the team until 1950 (during which time the team changed its name to the Tokyu Flyers and then the Kyuei Flyers and then back to Tokyu) when he joined the Taiyo Whales. In 1951 he joined the Hiroshima Carp and played for them seven seasons before retiring. After his playing days were over he coached high school baseball - winning the Koshien tournament in 1968 with Omiya Industrial High School. He passed away from a heart attack in 2000 at age 82.
I don't think there are any modern cards of Nagamochi. I have a couple menko cards of him from the late 40's/early 50's (one of which is here) along with this 1947 JBR 36 bromide card of him:
His face looks dark in this photo - I don't know if that's due to the burns he suffered during the war, if it's in shadow or even if it's simply a discoloration in the photo itself.
Nogamochi was drafted into the Imperial Navy in 1939 at age 21. He was stationed on the aircraft carrier Shokaku which was one of the six carriers used in the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is unclear to me what his role on the carrier was - the Google Translation of his Japanese wikipedia page simply says he was "aboard" the carrier while his entry in Japan Baseball Daily (accessed via the Wayback Machine) implies that he was a flyer. The Shokaku was sunk by a US submarine during the Battle Of The Philippine Sea in 1944 - Nagamochi was either onboard when it was sunk (Wikipedia) or his plane was shot down (Japan Baseball Daily) - either way, he spent two hours in the water before being rescued. He suffered burns on his face due to oil in the water with him that apparently required hospitalization in Kure back in the home islands.
When professional baseball started up again after the war, he joined the Tokyo Senators, the team that is now the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He stayed with the team until 1950 (during which time the team changed its name to the Tokyu Flyers and then the Kyuei Flyers and then back to Tokyu) when he joined the Taiyo Whales. In 1951 he joined the Hiroshima Carp and played for them seven seasons before retiring. After his playing days were over he coached high school baseball - winning the Koshien tournament in 1968 with Omiya Industrial High School. He passed away from a heart attack in 2000 at age 82.
I don't think there are any modern cards of Nagamochi. I have a couple menko cards of him from the late 40's/early 50's (one of which is here) along with this 1947 JBR 36 bromide card of him:
His face looks dark in this photo - I don't know if that's due to the burns he suffered during the war, if it's in shadow or even if it's simply a discoloration in the photo itself.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Byung-Ho Park of the Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins won the posting auction* for Nexen Heroes outfielder Byung-Ho Park last month and signed him to a contract this past week. I thought I'd do a quick post on what legitimate cards of Park exist as there are of course already several unlicensed cards for sale on Ebay.
*Remember that the posting system for players from Korea was not affected by the changes in the posting system for Japanese players that was forced on NPB by MLB two years ago so once the Twins won the bidding process Park could only negotiate with them.
As far as I've been able to tell, Park has only had cards in the Super Star Baseball KBO sets from the last two years. According to TradingCardDB, he has 11 cards spread in four of the six Super Star Baseball sets although that total includes two autograph cards, two memorabilia cards, a "gold coin" card and a parallel card so the total "regular" card count is more like five (which I think are all short prints or inserts because it's Super Star Baseball of course). There's also a sticker from this year's Season Two set that is not listed in the checklist. I have two of the cards plus the sticker:
Park has never played in a World Baseball Classic so there are no American cards for him by Upper Deck or Topps. He played for Korea in last month's Premier 12 and put the final nail in the USA's coffin in the championship game:
But there's no baseball cards that I know of for the Premier 12.
UPDATE - Almost forgot - thanks to Jason (as usual) and Dan Skrezyna for getting the Super Star Baseball checklists into TradingCardDB.
UPDATE #2 - Dan Skrezyna sent me a scans of a couple other Park cards:
*Remember that the posting system for players from Korea was not affected by the changes in the posting system for Japanese players that was forced on NPB by MLB two years ago so once the Twins won the bidding process Park could only negotiate with them.
As far as I've been able to tell, Park has only had cards in the Super Star Baseball KBO sets from the last two years. According to TradingCardDB, he has 11 cards spread in four of the six Super Star Baseball sets although that total includes two autograph cards, two memorabilia cards, a "gold coin" card and a parallel card so the total "regular" card count is more like five (which I think are all short prints or inserts because it's Super Star Baseball of course). There's also a sticker from this year's Season Two set that is not listed in the checklist. I have two of the cards plus the sticker:
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| 2014 Super Star Baseball Season One #SBC01-043 |
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| 2014 Super Star Baseball Season Two #SBC03-057-AS |
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| 2015 Super Star Baseball Season Two Sticker (unnumbered) |
Park has never played in a World Baseball Classic so there are no American cards for him by Upper Deck or Topps. He played for Korea in last month's Premier 12 and put the final nail in the USA's coffin in the championship game:
But there's no baseball cards that I know of for the Premier 12.
UPDATE - Almost forgot - thanks to Jason (as usual) and Dan Skrezyna for getting the Super Star Baseball checklists into TradingCardDB.
UPDATE #2 - Dan Skrezyna sent me a scans of a couple other Park cards:
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| 2014 Super Star Baseball Season Three SBC03-021-BS |
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| 2014-15 Super Star Baseball Blue Edition #SBCBE-127-AS |
Atori Ohta of the San Diego Padres
Baystars senryokugai pitcher Atori Ohta has signed a minor league contract with the San Diego Padres. Ohta was drafted in the third round of the 2007 NPB draft out of Teikyo High School. He has spent the bulk of his career with the Baystars farm team - only making 68 appearances with the ichi-gun team from 2008 to 2014 with over half of those coming in 2013.
He doesn't have a whole lot of baseball cards. He was included in the 2008 BBM Rookie Edition set (#18) and only appeared in one BBM flagship set (2008 1st Version #140). It looks like most of his other cards were in BBM's annual Baystars team sets (along with the 2012 Diamond Age - 1989 set). He does not appear to have any Calbee cards. He appears in four different collectible card game sets - two from Konami (2010 & 2011) and two from Bandai (2010 & 2013). (H/T the fine work Jason has done adding checklists to SportsCardForum's Inventory Manager). So there is a grand total of around 15 cards for him (not including any parallel issues or any Baystars team issued sets).
I only have these four cards of him:
In case you're wondering, two of the 2008 cards show him in the uniform of the Shonan Searex. The Baystars had a naming deal with Shonan for their farm team so from 2000 to 2009, the team was known as the Searex. The name reverted to the name of the top team (like every other farm team) in 2010.
He doesn't have a whole lot of baseball cards. He was included in the 2008 BBM Rookie Edition set (#18) and only appeared in one BBM flagship set (2008 1st Version #140). It looks like most of his other cards were in BBM's annual Baystars team sets (along with the 2012 Diamond Age - 1989 set). He does not appear to have any Calbee cards. He appears in four different collectible card game sets - two from Konami (2010 & 2011) and two from Bandai (2010 & 2013). (H/T the fine work Jason has done adding checklists to SportsCardForum's Inventory Manager). So there is a grand total of around 15 cards for him (not including any parallel issues or any Baystars team issued sets).
I only have these four cards of him:
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| 2008 BBM Rookie Edition #18 |
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| 2008 BBM 1st Version #140 |
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| 2008 BBM Baystars #YB33 |
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| 2015 BBM Baystars #DB31 |
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Hirokazu Ibata
Another in the long parade of players who retired at the end of the 2015 season was Giants infielder Hirokazu Ibata. Ibata was drafted by the Dragons in the fifth round of the 1997 NPB draft (Kenshin Kawakami was their first round pick that year) out of Asia University. He got into a handful of games with the ichi-gun team in 1998 but it wasn't until 2000 that he was with the top team to stay. He was the starting shortstop for the Dragons through most of the 00's. The Dragons released him at the end of the 2013 season and he joined the Giants.
He made the All Star team eight times (2001-02, 2005, 2007-11), was named to five Best 9 teams (2002, 2004-07) and won seven Golden Gloves (2004-09, 2012). He played on five Nippon Series with the Dragons (2004, 2006-07, 2010-11), winning it all in 2007. He played for Team Japan at least three times - the 2002 Baseball World Cup, the 2003 Asia Games and the 2013 World Baseball Classic - he made the 2013 WBC Best 9.
He retired to take a coaching position with the Giants under their new manager Yoshinobu Takahashi. He will be the new infield/base coach for the ichi-gun squad.
Ibata's rookie card was #389 in the 1998 set. I don't have it but he appears in the 2015 BBM 25th Anniversary set so the rookie card is featured on the back of his card:
He made the All Star team eight times (2001-02, 2005, 2007-11), was named to five Best 9 teams (2002, 2004-07) and won seven Golden Gloves (2004-09, 2012). He played on five Nippon Series with the Dragons (2004, 2006-07, 2010-11), winning it all in 2007. He played for Team Japan at least three times - the 2002 Baseball World Cup, the 2003 Asia Games and the 2013 World Baseball Classic - he made the 2013 WBC Best 9.
He retired to take a coaching position with the Giants under their new manager Yoshinobu Takahashi. He will be the new infield/base coach for the ichi-gun squad.
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| 2011 BBM Tohto 80th Memorial #52 |
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| 2001 BBM #294 |
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| 2002 BBM Japan National Team #31 |
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| 2003 Calbee #018 |
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| 2006 BBM Dragons 70th Anniversary #92 |
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| 2006 BBM 1st Version "Best 9" insert #BN16 |
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| 2006 BBM 1st Version "Golden Glove" insert #GG15 |
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| 2008 Calbee #107 |
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| 2010 BBM 1st Version #056 |
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| 2011 BBM All Stars #A57 |
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| 2011 BBM Nippon Series #S45 |
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| 2013 Calbee #007 |
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| 2014 Front Runner Giants Stars & Legends #10 |
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| 2015 BBM Giants #G43 |
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| 2015 BBM 25th Anniversary #097 (Back) |
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