The End For 2024

I wanted to do a quick post about some recently announced/released sets.  I believe that these are pretty much the last sets to be released in 2024 although there's probably one more coming which I'll mention below.

- BBM's ultra high end multi-sport set "Crown" is back for the third year.  BBM's web page is a little light on details but there's more information at the Trading Card Journal.  Six card boxes for this set will retail for 25,300 yen or about $165.  Each box is guaranteed to contain an autograph.  Every card is serially numbered (although I don't know what the counts are to).  The base set has 48 cards and there are four insert sets - "Velvet" (48 cards), "Jet" (48 cards), "Foil Autographed Card" (24 cards) and "Sparkling (3D)" (12 cards) - along with the autographed cards.  The baseball players in the set include OB players like Shigeo Nagashima, Sadaharu Oh, Kimiyasu Kudoh, Alex Ramirez, Kenji Johjima and Kosuke Fukudome and active players like Yu Darvish, Yuki Yanagita, Hayato Sakamoto, Munetaka Murakami and Chusei Mannami.  The set also includes athletes from soccer, basketball, rugby, table tennis, badminton, "athletics", marathon, swimming, skate boarding, fencing, speed skating, figure skating, sumo, boxing and wrestling.  The set will be out in late December.

- As I pretty much expected, Topps' Japanese website is selling Topps Now cards for the Samurai Japan team for the Premier 12.  Seven cards went on sale on Friday (I think) for the first two games of the tournament and another seven went on sale today for the final three games of the opening round.  It looks like the cards will be on sale for a month so the first seven will be available until December 22 and the other seven will be available until Christmas.  I expect there will be additional cards for the Super Round added in the next couple days although it's unlikely there'll be one for the finale (since there really wasn't any highlights in that game for Samurai Japan).  Each card is 1342 yen ($8.72) if you live in Japan but only 1220 yen ($7.92) if you're in the States (since you don't have to pay taxes on it).  Of course, if you're in the States, you have to pay for shipping and that's at least 4000 yen or about $26.  I'm not sure if there's a shipping charge in Japan.  I think that there might have been six cards issued for the warm up games Samurai Japan played against the Czech Republic the weekend before their group in the Premier 12 started but I missed them - they must not have been on sale for very long.  I do expect to see Topps offer a 30-ish card team set for the Premier 12 squad as well before the end of the year.

- Speaking of the Premier 12, there's apparently a card set for the cheerleader/dance squad that appeared between innings in the games in Taiwan.   Jambalaya has a listing for the "CT Amaze & Premier 12 Stars" set.  I don't know any real details about the set other than it appears to have a 70 card base set and a 45 card insert set.  Not sure if it's generally available in Japan or if Jambalaya imported it from Taiwan.

1934 All American Tour 90th Anniversary - Nishinomiya

Since leaving Shizuoka on the 20th, the MLB All Stars and All Nippon team had played two games at Narumi Stadium in Nagoya.  The game on the 22nd was a tight, one run victory for the All Americans, their second in a row after the 1-0 win in Shizuoka.  The second game on the following day was an easier win for the Americans with them prevailing 6-2.  No home runs were hit by either team in the two games.  

Narumi Stadium was built in the late 1920's and closed in the late 1950's.  Parts of the ballpark are still standing and are the grounds for the Meitetstu driving school.

Following the second game, the teams boarded an express train for Osaka.  They would play two games over the weekend of November 24-25 at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, just to the west of Osaka.  The stadium was 10 years old and had a seating capacity at the time of 70,000.  The ballpark's fences were a long way from home plate as it was 360 feet down the foul lines, 420 feet to the power alleys and 394 feet to straight away center.  The size of the park didn't present too many issues for the All Americans, though, as they won 15-3 over All Nippon, the first time they scored in double digits since the game in Yokohama six days earlier.  They did, however, fail to hit a home run for the third straight game.

The US and Japanese teams split into two mixed teams for the game on the 25th.  One team was managed by Babe Ruth and the other by Bing Miller.  Miller's team won the game 5-1.  The sole home run in the game was hit by Usaburo Shintomi, playing for Miller's team so the MLB All Stars homerless streak had reached four games.  

After the game, the teams would board a west-bound train and traveled overnight to the western tip of Honshu.  They dressed in uniforms at the hotel before taking a ferry across the Straits of Shimonoseki to play a game in Kokura in a downpour.  The All Americans won the muddy game 8-1 with Earl Averill and Ruth both homering.  Following the game, the teams were ferried back across the Straits and caught a train heading back east to Kyoto.  They'd play three more games in Japan with the All Americans winning each handily - 14-1 in Kyoto on the 28th, 23-5 in Omiya on the 29th and 14-5 in Utsunomiya on December 1st.  They had at least one home run in each game with Ruth hitting his final two home runs on Japanese soil in Omiya.  

The All Americans would depart Japan from Kobe on December 2nd and travel first to Shanghai before continuing on to the Philippines.  They would play four more games - one in Shanghai and the other three in Manilla - before the tour concluded.  It would be the last major tour of Japan by professional American baseball players until 1949.

Outside Koshien Stadium is a small square featuring several monuments.  There is a plaque for Tomoaki Kanemoto's consecutive innings played streak and a statue of a Tiger commemorating the Hanshin Tigers' 50th Anniversary in 1985.  The first monument placed there, however, was for Babe Ruth.  It was erected in 1949, the year after Ruth passed away.

A copy of this plaque resided in the Sports Legend Museum at Camden Yards in Baltimore, located outside Oriole Park and just a few blocks east of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum:

Baltimore's version of the plaque was a gift from the Tigers and made from the original mold by the sculptor.  The museum also featured a display of items of Ruth's from the tour:

Sadly, the museum in Baltimore closed in 2015.  I don't know where the Ruth items are although it's likely that they're either on display or in storage at the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum.  These photos are ones that I took when I visited the Sports Legend Museum in November of 2013.

One last time - I used Rob Fitts' book Banzai Babe Ruth as the primary source for this post.  I highly recommend Rob's work.

Card Of The Week November 24

Taiwan upset the previously undefeated Samurai Japan team today in the finale of the 2024 Premier 12 tournament.  Four Taiwanese pitchers combined to hold the volatile Japanese offense to no runs on just four hits while their offense scored four runs - three on a home run by tournament MVP Chen Chieh-hsien - on eleven hits.  Taiwan takes the Gold, their highest finish in a major international tournament since their Silver Medal finish at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.  Three different teams have won each of the three Premier 12 tournaments now with South Korea winning in 2015, Japan in 2019 and now Taiwan in 2024.

The loss today ended Japan's 23 game winning streak in the top three international tournaments.  This has constantly been reported as a 27 game winning streak but I think the extra four games are from last fall's Asian Professional Baseball Championship which, since it only involved four teams, really shouldn't count as a "major international tournament".  To be honest, if you're going to count that then you really should count the Women's Baseball World Cup, the final round of which was last summer.  Japan lost to the US in the last game of pool play before beating them again in the Gold Medal game, so the winning streak would have really been just nine games.

Two of the Taiwanese pitchers today had NPB experience.  Winning pitcher Chang Yi relieved starter Lin  Yu-min in the fifth inning and pitched three innings, striking out three while only giving up two hits.  Chang spent seven years in Japan, playing under the name Yaku Cho.  While he was born in Taiwan, he attended high school and college in Fukuoka which forced him to submit to the draft to enter professional baseball in Japan.  He was the top pick of the Orix Buffaloes in the development player phase of the 2016 draft as an outfielder but he converted to pitching "unofficially" in 2018 before registering as a pitcher going into 2019.  He was registered to the 70 man roster in early May of 2019 and made his ichi-gun debut a few weeks later.  After the 2022 season, he moved to the Lions as compensation for Orix signing free agent Tomoya Mori and was released after an injury-filled 2023 season.  He went into the CPBL draft last summer and was taken by the Fubon Guardians.

Chang was relieved by former Baystar and Marine Chen Kuan-yu.  Chen pitched a perfect inning while striking out two batters.  He attended high school and college in his home country so he was not subject to the NPB draft.  He signed with the Baystars in 2011 although the team demoted him to the developmental roster the following year.  He did not graduate from the ikusei ranks until 2014.  DeNA released him after that year and he signed on with Lotte.  He spent six years working out of the bullpen with Chiba before he decided to return to Taiwan due to family issues.  He was the first pick of the Rakuten Monkeys in the 2021 CPBL draft.

Earlier today, Team USA defeated Venezuela in the Bronze Medal game with starting pitcher Casey Lawrence throwing six shutout innings, giving up just four hits while striking out seven.  Lawrence had spent the 2019 season with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.  He only got into one game with the top team but pitched in 21 games with the farm team.

Here are cards of all three pitchers:

2017 BBM Rookie Edition #057

2013 BBM Baystars #DB41

2019 BBM 1st Version 171

Tsuyoshi Wada

Long time Hawks pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada, the final active player from the "Matsuzaka Generation" announced his retirement a few weeks ago.  Wada had a stellar collegiate career at Waseda University, setting the career strikeout record for the Tokyo Big Six league, before being signing with the then-Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the "free acquisition phase" of the 2002 draft.

The Hawks immediately put him into their starting rotation and he did not disappoint, going 14-5 with an ERA of 3.38 and 195 strikeouts (in 189 innings).  He capped off what ended up being a Rookie Of The Year winning season with a complete game victory over the Hanshin Tigers in Game 7 of that year's Nippon Series, winning the championship for the Hawks.  He also pitched for the Japanese team in that year's Asian Championship.

He was a mainstay of the Hawks rotation for the next several years before missing much of the 2009 season with elbow issues.  He bounced back in 2010 with a great season, going 17-8 with an ERA of 3.14 and 169 strikeouts.  The 17 wins led the Pacific League and he was the league MVP as well as the Best 9 pick at pitcher.  He followed that up with an even better season in 2011, going 16-5 with a 1.51 ERA for the eventual Nippon Series champions (Wada made two starts in the Series, getting a no-decision in Game One and the loss in Game Six).  Wada then made the decision to move to MLB, signing a two year contract with an option for a third year with the Baltimore Orioles.

He never appeared for the Orioles, however, as he blew out his elbow in early 2012 and underwent Tommy John surgery.  He recovered enough to make 19 starts with the O's Triple-A team in Norfolk in 2013 but Baltimore declined to pick up his option for 2014.  He signed with the Cubs and bounced between the majors and minors over the next two seasons, going 5-5 with a 3.36 ERA in 21 games (20 starts) with Chicago while spending the rest of the time in Triple-A Iowa (plus one game at Double-A Tennessee).

He returned to Japan and the Hawks for 2016 and it was like he'd never left.  He went 15-5 with 3.04 ERA, leading the PL in wins again.  He missed a lot of 2017 with another elbow injury and then missed almost all of 2018 with shoulder injuries.  He was back in the rotation in 2019 and won Game Four of the Nippon Series against the Giants.  He went 8-1 with a 2.94 ERA in 2020 and started Game Four of the Series against the Giants again, getting no decision in a game the Hawks eventually won to sweep the Giants again.  He had a so-so year in 2021, going 5-6 with a 4.48 ERA in 18 starts but bounced back to pitch reasonably well the next two years.  At age 42 and four months, he became the oldest pitcher to appear in an All Star game for the Pacific League in 2023.  He pitched well when healthy last season but staying healthy appears to have been an issue as he missed time with blisters on his fingers and a hip issue.  His contract had been renewed for next year despite him not being on the Hawks roster for the Nippon Series but he announced his retirement right after the Series ended.

He made six All Star teams (2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2016 and 2023) and pitched in four Nippon Series (2003, 2011, 2019 and 2020).  He set a record for longest gap between Nippon Series victories with the 16 years between his 2003 Game Seven and 2019 Game Four wins.  He pitched for Japan in two Olympics - 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing - as well as the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

His first baseball card was in the 2003 BBM Rookie Edition set (#63) and he also appeared in BBM's 1st and 2nd Version and Touch The Game sets, their Hawks team set, and their All Star, Nippon Series and Asian Championship box sets that year.  He appeared in BBM's 1st and 2nd Version sets every year that he played in Japan except 2018 (only in 1st Version) and 2019.  His first Calbee card was #146 in the 2003 Series Two set. Here's a bunch of his cards:

2003 BBM Rookie Edition #63

2003 BBM 1st Version #273

2003 BBM Nippon Series #04

2004 BBM 1st Version #375

2005 SCM #51

2006 Upper Deck WBC Jersey Collection #WBC-TW

2008 BBM Japan National Team #JPN12

2010 BBM All Stars #A42

2011 BBM 1st Version #325

2011 BBM Legend Of Tokyo Big Six #083

2012 Topps Chrome #185

2016 Calbee #004

2017 Epoch Pacific League #10

2019 Calbee #ES-02

2021 Epoch Hawks Rookies & Stars #04

2024 Hawks Season Vol. 1 #24SBH123 

NOTE - It was incorrectly reported three years ago that Wada had retired.  I had published a retirement post for him at the time and then removed it when I discovered he hadn't actually retired.  This post is mostly what I wrote at the time with some minor updates (and a couple additional cards).

1934 All American Tour 90th Anniversary - Shizuoka

2023 BBM Fusion #86

On November 20th, 1934 - 90 years ago today - the All American tour reached Kusanagi Baseball Stadium in Shizuoka.  The ballpark was just four years old, having opened in 1930.

17 year old Eiji Sawamura was the starting pitcher that day for All Nippon.  He was making his third appearance of the tour - the All Americans had hit him hard both times he had previously faced them and there was no reason to expect that this day's game would go any different.  The MLB All Stars were coming off of their most lopsided victory of the tour two days previously in Yokohama and had scored at least 14 runs in each of the previous three games.  And Babe Ruth had hit ten home runs in the previous six games.

But for whatever reason - maybe it was the afternoon sun over the right field stands that was glaring directly into the eyes of the batters - Sawamura pitched the best game that any All Nippon pitcher would throw on the tour.  He retired the first eleven batters including striking out future Hall Of Famers Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmy Foxx in succession in the first and second innings.

Unfortunately for Sawamura, his teammates were unable to generate any offense against All American starter Earl Whitehill.  The game remained scoreless into the bottom of the seventh inning when Gehrig hit a solo home run over the right field wall.  That would be the only run of the game and the All Americans would come away with a tight 1-0 victory.

Kusanagi Baseball Stadium still stands, although it went through some major renovations in the 1970's.  It has been used over the years for various high school, collegiate and corporate league baseball games as well as serving as a host for "countryside" games for several NPB teams as well as their farm teams.  This past year, the ballpark served as one of the home ballparks for the Kufu Hayate Ventures, the new independent farm team added to NPB's Western League.  It's usually left out when people list the ballparks that still exist that Babe Ruth once played in but it should be mentioned along with Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Meiji Jingu Stadium and Koshien Stadium.

In 1991, statues of Sawamura and Ruth were erected in the plaza outside the park.  I've visited this park twice - I stopped by in 2019 just to see the statues and in 2024 to see Hayate play.  Here are pictures I took of the statues during both visits:

Once again I heavily relied upon Rob Fitts' Banzai Babe Ruth for the information in this post.

Misleading And/Or Fake Ohtani Items On Ebay

Ohtani items continue to sell briskly on Ebay.  Besides the myriad of BBM, Epoch, Calbee and Topps issues, I've seen a couple home brew cards that people are attempting to claim are legitimate issues.  I thought I'd highlight a couple of the more egragious items I've seen along with an outright fraudulent listing.  I've reported all of these to Ebay but they don't seem to be interested in doing anything about them.

The first card is something that purports to be Ohtani's "2013 FIRST JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOL Rookie Card".  Here's the front and back of it:

The auction description says that "This is a rare opportunity for collectors to own a 2013 high school rookie card of Shohei Ohtani, the first Japanese high school player to receive such recognition. The card is made of 20 Pt. card stock and features the player's image, team name, and card number #. The card is part of the original high school insert set and is licensed by the manufacturer."

I'm not sure where to begin with this.  Let's start with the fact that Shohei Ohtani wasn't in high school in 2013, he was playing for the Fighters.  Remember the NPB draft is in October so he was drafted in 2012.  It's not clear to me whether the seller is claiming the card is Japanese but obviously the vast majority of Japanese cards actually have, you know, Japanese text on them and aren't printed in the USA.  The big thing is that the weight on the back of the card doesn't match Ohtani's weight from 2013 - according to his legitimate baseball cards from 2013, he weighed 86 kg or about 190.  He's bulked up a bit since then.

I'm also amused that the description says that the card has a number but it doesn't.

The second card is supposedly his "2017 Ham Fighters Unique Japanese Card Already A Legend Superstar", whatever that means:

The auction description says "This Shohei Ohtani 2017 Japanese card is unique and it totally rocks!! Featuring Ohtani in his Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters uniform!The reverse his personal info and some of his amazing fears! Card is older than any American card company!"

The first couple things I notice about this card are more issues with the description and not the authenticity.  That's obviously NOT his Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters uniform, it's his Samurai Japan one.  And I'll point out that Ohtani's first American card was from 2017 - it's the Chrome Prospects Mojo Refractor card from that year's Bowman set.

Again, wouldn't a Japanese card have Japanese text on it?  I mean, I've seen more than a few Japanese cards in my day and the only ones that only had English on them were the Broder, TCMA and Play Ball issues - all made by Americans.  

The thing that really stands out on the card, though, and kind of proves that it's not really from 2017 is the Fighter's team logo.  That's the one they started using in 2022 when Tsuyoshi Shinjyo became manager and redesigned the team's uniform and logo.  QED, mother-f*ckers.

I wouldn't have any real issue with either of these cards if the sellers were upfront that they were "art cards" but both of them appear to be trying to muddy the waters and imply that they're legitimate.  The "2013" card is selling for $9.99 and the "2017" card is selling for $19.99.  To be honest, I can see the attraction of the "2013" card as there's no legitimate cards of Ohtani in his high school uniform.  Just don't buy it as an investment.

The last item I want to talk about is outright fraud or, at the very least, intentionally misleading.  Here's a screenshot of the auction:

This is an auction for the 2016 BBM 1st Version Fighters team checklist.  Now, Shohei Ohtani's name appears ont the back of the card since, you know, it's a listing of all the Fighters cards in 1st Version that year and Ohtani was one of them.  But the implication of the listing is that that's Ohtani pitching on the card and it's not - it's Yuki Saitoh.  

The photo on that card was taken in Peoria, Arizona when the Fighters were doing their training camp there.  There were several photos in the 1st Version set that were taken in Arizona that year.  That particular photo appeared on the Fighter's web site.  It's not there any more but both the photo and the webpage that it appeared on are preserved in the Wayback Machine.  I suppose it's possible that Ohtani's the guy standing in the bullpen in the background but that's a long shot as he was batting third in the lineup as the DH in this game.  

The game the photo is from was played on February 8th, 2016 and, as you can see from the box score (well, half box score since it has no stats from the Lotte Giants, the Fighters' opponent that day), Ohtani didn't pitch.  I believe the only game he pitched in Arizona that spring was on February 10th, a game I happened to be at.  He wore the away uniform for that game while the card shows Saitoh in the team's home uniform.

I guess I'm going WAY out of my way to attempt to prove it's not Ohtani on the mound on the card.  But Ebay didn't care when I pointed it out and someone bought the card for $16.75 so what do I know.  I've bought from this particular seller before but I don't think I'll do it again in the future.

1934 All American Tour 90th Anniversary - Yokohama

After returning to Tokyo following their games in Hakodate and Sendai, the All Americans played two more games at Jingu Stadium before venturing north to Toyama on November 13th.  They returned to Tokyo to play their fifth and final game at Jingu on the 17th and on the 18th, they traveled to Yokohama to play at what was then called Yokohama Park Sports Field.

While Yokohama Park Sports Field was relatively new in 1934, the park the ballpark resided in, Yokohama Park (also known as Soga Park), had been around for a number of years.  It was here in 1896 in which "a team from Tokyo's Ichikō high school convincingly defeated a team of resident foreigners from the Yokohama Country & Athletic Club".  This was the first time a Japanese team had defeated a team of foreigners and it greatly contributed to the popularity of baseball in Japan.  There was a ballpark built in the park in the 1910's but it was damaged in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.  The new ballpark opened in 1929 so it was just five years old when the All Americans played here.

The ballpark did not present any obstacles to the All Americans as they defeated the All Nippon team 21-4, the most lopsided victory of the nine games on the tour so far.  The MLB stars hit five home runs with Babe Ruth hitting two and Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Earl Averill each hitting one.  It was the sixth straight game that Ruth homered in - he'd hit ten over those six games.  The All Americans weren't the only home run hitters that day - Toshiharu Inokawa hit the All Nippon team's first home run of the tour in the ninth inning.  The two teams would next head west to Shizuoka.

Yokohama Park Sports Field would stand for another 40 years after the tour.  It was briefly used as a POW camp during the war and was renamed "Lou Gehrig Memorial Stadium" by the occupying Allied forces after the war.  It was the site of the first night game in NPB in August 17th, 1948 between the Giants and the Dragons.  After the Allied occupation ended in the early 1950's, the park's name was changed again to "Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Stadium" although it was generally referred to as "Heiwa Stadium".  While it would host NPB games on occasion, it was not the home park for any team.

By the 1970's, the park was in bad shape.  Concerns about the stability of the stands caused the capacity of the park to be restricted to less than 10,000, much too small to host an NPB team regularly.  Meanwhile, the Taiyo Whales were growing dissatisfied with their home ballpark in Kawasaki, just to the north of Yokohama.   They and Yokohama eventually entered into agreement for the Whales to move to Yokohama when Heiwa Stadium was either renovated or replaced.  The old ballpark was finally torn down in 1977 to make way for Yokohama Stadium.  The new ballpark opened in 1978 as the home for the newly renamed Yokohama Taiyo Whales.

There's a display on the concourse of Yokohama Stadium that details the history of the ballparks on the site.  I took pictures of it on my first visit to the Stadium in 2013 but I didn't really understand what I was looking at at the time:

At some point, there were plaques installed in the outfield corners for Ruth and Gehrig.  Ruth's was at the left field foul pole while Gehrig's was at the right field pole.  In recent years, the plaques have been moved to the afore-mentioned history section.  I suspect that this was due to the recent renovations that were done to the ballpark but I don't know that for sure.  I had not known about the plaques when I visited the ballpark the first time in 2013 and wasn't able to get to them when I returned in 2019.  But when I visited there six months ago, I was able to see both of them in their new resting place:

Once again, I drew on Banzai Babe Ruth by Rob Fitts for source material for this post.