Showing posts with label japanese players. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japanese players. Show all posts

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Sidetracked Stack


There's at least one person in my life that gets frustrated over the number of Federal holidays... so I'm guessing there might be others out there.  Me?  I'm way on the other end of the spectrum.  I love them.

Every year we celebrate George Washington's birthday on the third Monday of February... and every year that means I get a week off from work.

The past three days, I've been running errands, hanging out with my brother, and hitting up stores like Ikea, Daiso, and Costco Business.  But in between this busy schedule, I've been attacking some stacks that have been piling up in my office.

One of those stacks was a pile of Japanese baseball players I set aside from Rod's care package.  It was meant to be part of the 660ct. Storage Box of Cards post, but it was hidden under some top loaders and a note pad.  I found it earlier in the week and started scanning some of the cards.  I finally organized the stack and integrated the cards into my binders.

Today I'm wrapping things up by highlighting the goodies.  Let's start things off with two of the biggest Japanese rookies from 2024:


Shota Imanaga had a stellar season with the Cubs last year and clearly adopted the role as the team's ace.  If he was a few years younger, I could see collectors going wild over his cards.  But now that he's in his 30's, it'll be interesting how many more seasons he can play in the MLB at an elite level.


On the other hand, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is only twenty-six years old... so he could spend the next decade or so being teammates with Ohtani and Sasaki.  Here are two of the shinier rookie cards that Rod included:

2024 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor #114
2024 Topps Chrome X-Fractor #18

Hopefully he'll be able to stay healthy and have a long and productive career like this hall of famer:

2024 Topps 1989 All-Stars #89ASB-38

I've been a fan of Ichiro since he came over to the states in 2001.  Can't exactly say the same for 1989 Topps baseball.  

2024 Topps Chrome Silver Pack #T89CU-63

But I've gotta admit... the design has slowly been growing on me over the past decade.  

Next up is another old school (if you can call 2000's athletes old school) Japanese legend:

2024 Stadium Club Red Foil #142

Hey Bo... any idea when this photo was taken?  2009 World Series?

Let's get back to current players with this relic card of Seiya Suzuki:


Check out that dirty swatch.  I love it!  Suzuki led the Cubs in batting average, OPS, and slugging percentage among all of their regular starters.

Now for my favorites in the stack.  Let's start with a card I was hoping that someone would eventually send me:

2024 Allen & Ginter #172

Masanori Murakami was the first Japanese guy to play in the MLB.  It's nice to see Topps add him to their Ginter checklist, because now I have a few more cards of his to chase down.

The final card features a guy I've never heard of, but it's a card I'll treasure forever:

1986 ProCards Phoenix Firebirds #NNO

Cliff Shidawara was the Phoenix Firebirds trainer for several seasons back in the 80's.  He continued working in Arizona as a clinical athletic trainer into the 90's.


Couldn't find any information about him still working with baseball players.  However... according to Linkedin page, he's an elementary school bus driver in Tempe, so technically he could be a part of my Educators on Cardboard PC.

Thank you Rod for this nice stack of Japanese athletes and trainers!  Sorry I wasn't able to hang out with you, Kevin, Gavin, and Kerry.  Hopefully we can get together in the spring or summer.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

An Attempted Run at Area 51


My memory isn't what it used to be.  That being said... I still remember watching Ichiro Suzuki receive a standing ovation from players and fans at the Tokyo Dome as he walked off the field as a player for the final time in his career back in March of 2019.

Since then it's been a waiting game... since there was no doubt in my mind that he'd be a first ballot hall of famer.  And as we all know... the wait is sort of over.   Last Tuesday he got the call from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but now Ichiro and his fans must wait another six months for the Class of 2025 Induction Ceremony which will be held on July 27th in Cooperstown.

Until then you can expect at least two or three posts celebrating Ichiro's career.  Today's post focuses on his Topps flagship base card run.  It's not complete, but it's darn close.

2001 Topps #726
2002 Topps #225

No Topps base card run could be considered complete without his rookie card.  It took me twenty-three years, but I finally acquired a copy last summer at the flea market.  Unfortunately, I'm still looking for his 2001 Topps Traded & Rookies card.

2003 Topps #100
2004 Topps #10

His 2004 and 2005 Topps base cards are two of my favorites.  Both feature attractive action shots.

2005 Topps #400
2006 Topps #225
2007 Topps #400

Topps dropped the ball on Ichiro's 2007 base card.  What could have been one heckuva "play at the plate" card ended up being a zoomed in... cropping disaster.

2008 Topps #320
2009 Topps #300
2010 Topps #125

Topps redeemed themselves in 2008 with a nice photo of Ichiro and his iconic "samurai" pose.

2011 Topps #200
2012 Topps #537
2012 Topps Update #US272

On July 23, 2012... the Seattle Mariners shipped him off to the New York Yankees where he'd play the next two seasons.  Unfortunately Topps didn't have a contract with him, so Ichiro didn't have base cards in their 2013 and 2014 flagship sets.

2015 Topps Update #US396
2016 Topps #700

In 2015, he signed with the Miami Marlins as a free agent and returned to Topps in time for their Update set.

2017 Topps #699
2018 Topps #157
2018 Topps Update #US100

In March of 2018, he'd return to play for the Seattle Mariners for about a month before transitioning to a position in their front office.  The following season, he'd play his final two MLB games for the Mariners in Japan for the 2019 MLB Opening Series.

Ichiro has one of those "legends" variation cards in 2019 Topps flagship and another in the 2019 Topps Update set, but I haven't tracked either of those down yet.  In fact, I haven't really gone out of my way to obtain any of the Topps flagship short prints with the exception of this card:

2020 Topps #363

I'm not sure if this card fits into Dime Box Nick's Into the Sunset category or not... but it's an Ichiro Topps flagship base card (albeit a legend variation) that happens to feature statistics from his entire MLB career:


This is one of my most recent Ichiro purchases.  I had been waiting for this card to pop up on eBay for a reasonable BIN price.  Then last month, one came up for auction and I wound up being the highest bidder ($14.75 + $1.25 shipping).

I will continue to look for reasonably priced Topps flagship variations of Ichiro, but who knows when I'll be fortunate enough to land another one.  In the meantime, if you like these sorts of things... I encourage you to check out Reds Card Collector.  His Ichiro collection is super impressive.

Well that's it for now.  I'm a little behind on blogging, but I do have another Flea Market Find post in the works.  Hopefully I'll get it published on Thursday.  I have another trip to the flea market planned for Saturday and I'd hate to start piling up posts.  But we'll see how things play out.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Monday, January 20, 2025

Desperately Seeking Sasaki


Heartbreak is the word that best describes how I felt when I heard the news that Roki Sasaki picked the Dodgers.  Obviously as a Padres fan, I wanted him to choose Yu over Shohei and Yoshinobu.  But you don't always get what you want (unless you're a Dodgers fan).

The worst part about the situation is that even though he's officially a rival... I want to see him find success in the MLB and I'll definitely seek out his cards

Yesterday, I started the hunt.  I kicked off my morning by purchasing his first Topps Now Dodgers card off of eBay.  Then I ripped open seven packs of 2024 NPB cards that were sent to me by Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan) a few weeks ago.

Back in December, I read on NPB Card Guy's blog that Topps was releasing three NPB products on their website.  Since Ryan is currently in Japan for work, I showed these products to him.  I also mentioned that if he was going to place an order, I'd be interested in buying some too.

A few weeks later, a box from across the Pacific arrived in my mailbox:

2024 Stadium Club NPB

2024 Topps 206 NPB

2024 Topps Chrome NPB

With shipping... these three boxes came out to almost $300.  But he tossed in a few bonuses: more snack packs with cards, a pack of 2024 Stadium Club NPB, and a pack of 2024 Topps 206 NPB.

Let's bust into some of them.  First up are five packs of 2024 Bandai Pro Baseball Deforme Card Collection.  Some of you might remember these from Ryan's advent calendar back in December.

Here's what I pulled:


I actually pulled two of Takuya Kai's cards, but no Roki.


Next up is the
pack of 2024 Topps 206 NPB:


I was excited to open up this pack and check out this product.  Nothing too special and more importantly... no Roki.


Last up is a pack of 2024 Stadium Club NPB:


Here's a peek at the card backs for those who are interested:


Most of the photography is decent, but one particular card stood out:


Not sure if they're celebrating a championship or a no-hitter... but this card is awesome.  The joy on the catcher's face is priceless.

The final card in the pack wasn't a Roki, but it was an insert:


Even though part of his right hand is cropped of, it's a decent looking card.  Unfortunately, the card back is boring:


Lots of wasted space, but that seems to be the trend with Topps NPB cards.

Well... no Roki cards in these seven packs.  But that's okay, because there will be plenty of his cards for me to collect in 2025.

Just like they flooded the hobby with Yoshinobu Yamamoto cards this year.  But I'm not complaining, I'm excited.

John over at Johnny's Trading Spot included a huge stack of Japanese athletes in the last care package he sent my way and one of them was this awesome rookie card of him:

2024 Topps Chrome #18

He also tossed in this Hobby Rip Night card:

2024 Topps Hobby Rip Night #35

Here are eight other cards from his care package:

2022 Allen & Ginter Pitching A Gem #PAG-9
2024 Topps 1988 Chrome Silver Pack #T88C-27

We live in an era where every Shohei Ohtani card is treated and hoarded like gold... so whenever I can add two new cards to my binder, it's an exciting day.

2024 Topps Chrome Future Stars #FS-9

Kodai sat out most of his sophomore season with a calf injury, but he did return for one game in the playoffs.  It wasn't pretty... but these Future Stars inserts are.

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights WBC Preview #WBC1

Love this card.  I'm a big fan of the 2008 Topps design... and this card previewed the 2009 WBC tournament... which Dice-K dominated in.

Here are two more popular Japanese players...

2006 Topps Stars #TS-HM
2020 Topps Chrome Prism Refractor #166

And you can't forget this legend...

2024 Topps Hobby Rip Night #31

Looking forward to seeing Ichiro get inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this summer.

And I'm looking forward to seeing where this guy will land in 2026...

2023 Topps WBC Stars #WBC-60

Unless... of course... he lands with Roki Sasaki and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Thank you John for another large stack of Japanese athletes for my collection.  And thank you Ryan for helping me acquire those boxes... and for all of the freebies you tossed into the box.

Happy Monday and sayonara!