#30DBCC Days 11-20 Recap

The 30 Day blog and /or Twitter Challenge has been both fun and thought provoking for me. I've gone through binders I hadn't looked at in a long time. At least twice I posted a card for a daily challenge and then later thought "that card would have work better for THIS one."

Anyway, here is the next installment, Days 11 through 20.

Day 11...a favorite card from the 70s. I went with the Jim Palmer Kellogg's card for a couple of reasons. I have plenty of them for one thing. And they are just plain neat cards. The 3D aspect was unique then and nobody has done it as well since. 

I could have put the '78 Murray rookie here but that one would have fit in several other places. I already used it a a favorite rookie card.

Day 12. A favorite from the 80s. Rochester Cal Ripken. The only card I own that I ever considered paying to have graded. I have two of these, the other is on display on my shelves. That one isn't off-center.

Day 13. A favorite from the 90s. I was a David Clyde fan since I watched him as a high school phenom. He was a man playing against boys.

Day 14. A favorite from the 2000s. 2008 Topps Barack Obama. No comment other than I remember buying one pack of 2008 Topps cards at a Wal Mart and opening them in the parking lot. I remember being disappointed in the design. 

Day 15. A favorite from the 2010s. I could have chosen any of about a hundred great Stadium Club cards from the last three years. This one is about as good as a card gets.

Day 16. A card of a guy I didn't like but admired. .My only decision was which Reggie to post. I chose a great one I picked up from the late Bob Lemke. RIP Bob

Day 17. A card from the first set I put together by hand. .I decided to use a card from my first major set blogging project, '59 Topps. I'm sure i put together several sets as a kid but I couldn't swear which the were. Probably '62 or '63. Those were school yard sets projects. Picking the '59 gave me the chance to post this great Frank Robinson card.

Day 18. A card of a player who went on to manage your fave team. Could have used a Frank Robinson card here as well. I scanned his rookie card but then decided to use a Bauer for variety. This one had just arrived as an upgrade for the '58 binder.

Day 19. A favorite from outside the USA. This one was right in my wheelhouse. I flipped thru my Japanese card collection and chose three different Sadaharu Oh menkos. 

I'm in doubt about the legitimacy of this one:

I like this one .....

....but I like this one the most!!

And finally we get to Day 20: A parallel you like not for the player but the design.  I pay next to no attention to parallels so I was at a disadvantage on this one. First one I found was this framed Brooks from an Upper Deck set. Winner by acclamation I guess. 

I'm in the midst of pulling and scanning for the final leg of the challenge. They may be the most fun of them all. I hate to see the end of the 30 days coming at me.

I'll post those once the challenge is done.

1964 Sadaharu Oh Morinaga Top Star

A couple of years back I was able to knock off a 'white whale' of sorts when I picked up a Sadaharu Oh Menko card. Once I'd done that the Japanese homer champ sort of fell off my radar, but not my eBay 'Followed Searches' list. I'd check from time to time but nothing came up that was both interesting and affordable. Then I saw this.

A few weeks back the colorful and fascinating Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko blog a Sumo card from the 1964 Morinaga Top Star series was featured. Sumomenkoman (I have no idea what his actual name is) mentioned the fact that Oh has a card in one of the two different varieties of the baseball version of the set. The Top Star cards are either die-cut (JG 1) or not (JG 2). This Oh card is part of the latter category. I went to eBay and found one with a decent opening bid and I placed one myself figuring I'd lose out.

But I won and this showed up yesterday. It's an oversize card issued by the still prosperous Morinaga & Company confectionery company of Tokyo. They've been in business since 1899. There isn't a whole lot of info on these on the web but they seem to be popular items on auction sites. Here is a bit of background from one of them:

From Heritage Auction:

1964 MORINAGA "TOP STARS". In 1964, there were actually two distinct baseball card issues created by Morinaga. Substantially more common (though quite scarce in its own right) was the production known [...] as "JG 1."  It was a die-cut affair, providing admirers the ability to fashion stand-up figures.  However, Morinaga also made a non die-cut variety (JG 2).  Currently, there are eleven different confirmed [that # is debatable, see below]...... They measure 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" and include vital information on the reverse. 

A look at the back shows minimal type that includes the player's vitals. The die-cut version have instructions for making the card a 'stand-up'.

Gary Engel's Japanese Baseball Card checklist/price guide lists the set as JF 2 rather than JG 2 and I'd tend to go along with his designations. He's an expert on cards such as these. I scanned his checklist out of my copy of the book. 12 baseball players are included here as opposed to the auction site's statement that there are 11. .

For perspective I scanned the Oh with a random modern Topps card.

I rarely go after graded cards and when I do there is always a debate going on in my head as to whether or not I should break them 'free' of their plastic prison. I think in this case (no pun intended...or was there?) I'm going to leave Mr. Oh alone. At least for now. I'd rather not risk damaging the card. I've had a few close calls. But either way this is a most welcome addition.

1973 Sadaharu Oh Menko card

This eBay pickup fills a need for me. For a very long time I've wanted a stand-alone Sadaharu Oh card issued during his career. I have a few other Oh cards but none of this nature.

With the help of Gary Engel's Japanese card guidebook I was able to ID this as a 1973 Menko from the set cataloged as JCM 15b. It is printed on thick cardboard, probably as thick as 3 vintage Topps cards put together.

In 1973 Oh was about 2/3 of the way through his outstanding career. He hit 51 homers which was his second best total ever. His .355 batting average was his career high and his total bases and slugging percentage were his best to that point in his career.

As is the case with many Japanese Menko sets the backs of the 15b's are interchangeable so they are no help in identifying players. It's sized at 1.75" x 3". For comparison purposes here is the Oh scanned next to my 1974 Frank Robinson.

The top edge of the Oh card is a bit ragged. Engle's book doesn't mention whether or not these cards came as pairs that were separated by collectors but given how Japanese Menko cards were issued it wouldn't surprise me at all.

All in all I'm pretty stoked to have this one. I don't have a huge collection of Japanese cards but I find them fascinating. I pick up singles that catch my eye here and there off eBay for fun. The different styles intrigue me and they are a fun look into another culture.  I'll continue to add to what I guess could be called my 'type' collection.

Cheap Japanese Cards (Made in America)

Back when card shows sprung up like mushrooms and dealers were selling anything and everything, licensed or not, I liked to browse the aisles looking for odd and off-the-wall items that caught me eye. One such item was a 40-something card set of Japanese big leaguers that contained a card of Sadaharu Oh. It's called Play Ball Japan. 

I had been looking for an affordable career-contemporary card of the Japanese slugger for a long time (still am, btw) but I was settling for anything I could find. This set from 1987 filled the bill. Oh was the Yomiuri Giants manager at the time so it was about as close a card to what I wanted as I could get.

The set isn't credited to anyone but it sure looks like something put together by Ed Broder who back then was cranking out gypsy sets and singles without taking a breath. Most of the cards included were Americans playing in Japan, guys referred to as "Gaijin". 

Randy Bass was a legendary slugger in Japan and his whole story is a fascinating one. Reading his Wikipedia entry will give you a taste of what he meant to the fans over there. I was surprised to find that he currently is a State Senator from Oklahoma. Has been for a decade. I'll reprint part of the Wiki page here:

Bass is also famous in Japan for the "Curse of the Colonel." Following the 1985 Series victory, revelers celebrated by calling off the names of team members one by one. At each name, a fan who looked like that player would jump into the filthy Dotonbori canal. For Bass, someone threw a life-sized model of Colonel Sanders, the mascot of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the only close-at-hand likeness of a bearded American, into the river. The statue disappeared and is said to have caused the subsequent decade-long dismal performance in the Central League.
In an attempt to remove the curse, fans made repeated attempts to find the model, making offerings to the statues of the Colonel for forgiveness. In 2003, when the Tigers returned to the Japan Series after 18 years with one of the worst records in the Central League, many KFC outlets in Kōbe and Ōsaka moved their Colonel Sanders statues inside until the series was over to protect them from rabid Tigers fans. The newly replaced Colonel Sanders statue in the Dotonbori KFC branch was bolted down to prevent a repeat of the incident.
On March 10, 2009, the top half of the statue (minus hands and legs) originally thrown into the Dotonbori River was recovered during construction of a walkway. A diver said that he had thought he had found a large barrel, but was surprised when it turned out to be the upper body of the Colonel. The statue's legs and right hand were recovered the following day. The statue is still missing its glasses and left hand. The statue of Colonel Sanders is currently in a KFC franchise across the street from Koshien Stadium.

Lots of other familiar names in the set. I wonder if Leon and Leron Lee ever got confused for one another?

Matt Keough has also led an :::ahem::: interesting life. He was really good for a couple of years. He won 16 games in 1980 then a short time later his talent just seemed to up and leave. He hung around another five years before heading to Japan where he had some good years.

Sadaharu Oh managed the Giants for five seasons from 1984 through 1989. His team won the pennant in 1987. I believe he is currently in the Giants front office.

A few more Gaijin. Warren Cromartie, Ben Oglivie, Dave Hostetler and boomer Wells. Home run hitters one and all.

Here is the back of the Oh card. Pretty barebones.

There are about 20 Japanese players included. Many were stars of the day and a few became Hall of Famers. Nobuyuki Kagawa was a broadcaster after his playing days. This story mentions his weight issues and how they led to his death at the age of only 52.

I think I paid $5 for the set off a dealer's table about 25 years ago. That's probably what it's worth today. But there is currently one on eBay with an asking price of  $200. I had to do a double take on that. Is it a solid gold parallel issue? I did a screen grab just to show I'm not making this up.

Sadaharu Oh 1960 Menko

I have an interest in Japanese baseball cards, particularly Menko cards. (Menko are the cards that were originally used in children's card games.) I have a small but growing collection of this type of card. I know very little myself but I rely on Gary Engel's great reference book in addition to a couple of well done online resources.

The uncut sheet above I found on a vendor's table at an antique mall some years ago and the proprietor knew almost nothing about it. He sold it to me for a couple of bucks as I recall. I put it away in my storage box with other Japanese cards and didn't think much about it. The other day I was pulling stuff from that box and when I looked again at this strip of 'cards' I spied what I realized was a familiar face on the 'card' at the bottom left corner of the strip. The player in the yellow circle appeared to me to be Sadaharu Oh, legendary slugger of Japanese baseball fame! I've wanted to find an original, playing era issued Oh card for a reasonable price for a long time. Had I had one all along? If so why hadn't I recognized this sooner?

I wasn't sure but the cap appeared to be a Tokyo Giants one and the pose looked like that of a left handed batter. What threw me off was that fact that the card also featured a player that was obviously a right-handed pitcher. I had always assumed that they were the same player and I had never examined it much further.

Pulling Engle's book off the shelf I quickly discovered that what I had was most certainly an original Oh Menko card. This is one half of a complete set in uncut form from 1960. Engle dates the set based on uniforms of the ball players and the television shows represented by the cards on the right. He lists the card in question as Sadaharu Of/Pitcher. It does indeed show two different players, one being O!. The dude with the glasses, second card from the top left, is Japanese Hall of Famer Tadashi Sugiura.

Engle lists the set value at $45 but there is this exact uncut sheet avaulable right now on eBay for $10.

Here is the back. I'm really excited that I discovered the Oh card. One more thing knocked off my collectibles 'bucket list'!!

Sadaharu Oh playing card, circa 1969

Until I'm able to afford a true Sadaharu Oh card I'll have to let this one serve as the one example in my collection. This is a playing card issued in Japan during Oh's career. It came out of a deck of 52 and they had different Japanese players. It only cost a couple of bucks. A true Sadaharu Oh Menko card goes for hundreds. 

The reverse shows it was just a run-of-the-mill playing card. But it's an "Oh" card and it was issued when he was still active so it's fine by me.