3 Cards (Vol 57)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

Today's post is going to be a wee bit different. I'm going to be featuring three different packs with a combined total of five cards within them.

Pack 1

I found that Japanese grocery stores still carry some unique stuff like these cards that come with gum (novel concept right?). The reigning king of this genre of card+gum products over in Japan appears to be a company called enSKY.

These packs usually have like one or two clear acetate cards max inside with some gum. The gum is sweet and nice but the flavor only lasts like five seconds and you spit it out. The real prize is the card anyway.

Might as well start off with a character some who are in the know are aware of, Hatsune Miku. A virtual CGI anime girl who does live shows using hologram technology and people actually pay to attend her "concerts". I've listened to her stuff and it's electronica that doesn't have much in terms of substance but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't catchy.

Anyway the pack above is a Clear Card Collection Gum 5, I assume that means this is series five of a long series. Japan's collecting culture is a whole other animal, if you don't pay attention you will lose track of the stuff in a flash. There are 54 total cards in this set and this pack features two of them, though be warned that the two you get may not be the ones shown on the package.

I don't care for anime/manga, all of these years of western weaboos asking me if I've seen "such and such anime" the second after I tell them I'm of Japanese ancestry have made me dislike it. But I will be the first to admit that the art-style can look incredible in stills like the one above. The scan didn't pick up on it but this card is somehow shiny with three different layers of sparkles despite being a thin acetate card. No I do not know how enSky accomplished this, but I am in awe all the same.

The backs on all of the cards we'll see in this post are like this in that they aren't really clear. But I have noticed that the closer you bring it to a light or lamp, the more clear and defined the picture gets.

Here is a "chibi" version of one of Miku's friends, "Meiko". Chibi is basically just a way of drawing a character in a cuter form with an even bigger/more exaggerated head and smaller body proportions. Also no noses. Ever. Noses aren't cute.

Pack 2

Next up is a pack of Uma Musume Clear Card Collection Gum. This is part of the Uma Musume Pretty Derby franchise which is a popular mobile app game. It's about cute anime girls who want to be the best horse girls in the world. Uma musume translates to horse daughter BTW (yes, I know that musume also translates to girl in some instances, go away weebs).

Much like the Hatsune Miku pack before, this is made by enSKY and denotes that there is a full 54 card set and that this pack only features two of them.

Here's a chibi version of a character I assume. Apparently this character is ready to have a workout from hell at the gym.

I assume that this "El Condor Pasa" is not the Peruvian folk song or the Simon & Garfunkel song inspired by the Peruvian folk song, and merely a character in this franchise.

Pack 3

The third and last pack we'll be looking at today is from Fate/Extra: Last Encore. Fate/Extra is a role-playing video game franchise and this Last Encore thing was an anime adaption made in 2018. I couldn't really tell you much about the game/show since I'm not familiar with it, I know there's fighting involved and I think there's a character who has conveniently lost their memories and must now fight in some unknown virtual universe while they try to piece back parts of their past. Sure, great that's not totally generic at all.

This is going to be different from the first two packs because it states that the set itself only has 18 cards and that this pack only has one card inside. Also unlike the first two packs that were completely concealed and hidden, this pack is in a clear cellophane pack.

Despite the ponytail I'm pretty sure this is a dude.

So anyway this was a look into the world of Japanese non-sports cards that can be found at supermarkets for like 108 yen (aprox $1 USD) each.

Also, I just want to end this post by showing how the gum is packaged. enSKY clearly did their homework and learned from where Topps and Fleer did shit when they packaged cards with gum. These are cleanly packaged in plastic wrapping (that's recyclable too!). No bug-proof powders necessary. No risk of the sugar in the gum staining the card.

My motherland, they do it right.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

3 Cards (Vol 50)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

Card #1

Leading off is my first ever J. League card.
The J. League is basically the Japanese Professional Football (soccer) League. Or Japan's version of MLS. My understanding of soccer and the J. League is woefully dismal but as far as I can tell there are two key divisions, J1 and J2. J1 is the better division to be in because it means you're good and you have a shot at winning it all. J2 is the worse division to be in because it means you're not even in the top 18. Even though I'm not much of a soccer guy I have wanted a Nagoya Grampus card in my collection for a while.

I managed to make it happen with this Naoshi Nakamura autograph numbered 15 of 20. Nakamura was a midfielder who spent his entire career with the Nagoya Grampus from 2001 to 2014. Unfortunately he was never much of a superstar outside of Nagoya (he only played in a friendly game for Team Japan once at that), but he was a consistent performer for the club for a very long time and I'm glad to have him be the subject of the first Grampus card in my collection.

Card #2

Next up is an Unparalleled rookie card of Giants rookie QB, Daniel Jones.

Poor Jones. Dude's getting a ton of heat and unnecessary shit for what is ultimately Dave Gettleman's gaffes. Maybe Jones really is the answer to how the Giants plan to survive in the post-Eli Manning era, but that doesn't change how he's definitely not the answer for how the Giants survive in the post-Odell Beckham Jr. era, which is right fucking now and not 2-3 years from now.

Also, obligatory "lmao Daniel Jones and Eli Manning are the same person!" meme/pic.

Card #3

Finishing off is SHINO, the only Dragons cheerleader card I picked up. Because all of these were overpriced in Nagoya (no shit).

The back of the card starts that miss SHINO is a Aries, they hail from Gifu (which is Dragons, and Giants, territory), she stands at 155 cm (which is 5'0853"), she's a freshman cheerleader, her favorite foods are ajillo/raw ham and mint chocolate (all of which are delicious), and that her special abilities include shopping/baton twirling and waking up early.

The message at the end is her basically saying that she's going to put her all into her performances so that the audience can smile and cheer. Also that she hopes this is the year for the Dragons.

And that was another edition of three cards.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

3 Cards (Vol 48)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

For today's post there's going to be a key theme. That being, promo cards.

Card #1

My trip to Japan happened to coincide with (Inter)National Baseball Card Day. Because the shop keepers and I are on good terms/because I just happened to be at the right place at the right time, I got about four of those special cello packs. As well as the guaranteed Bryce Harper and Vlad Guerrero Jr. cards. I'm never going to turn down free cards (though I'm struggling to figure out what to do with these other than regift them).

Card #2

Next up is a promo "pack" of EPOCH 2019 NPB Baseball Cards.

These promo packs featured one promo card per pack and were given out for free with the purchase of a box of an EPOCH product. The shop owner of Match-Up was really cool and let me have a pack even though all I bought were two packs of 2019 EPOCH Chunichi Dragons Rookies & Stars. 

Inside the promo pack I got a Shuta Tonosaki. Tonosaki was a third round pick by the Seibu Lions in 2014 and has been with the team since 2015. After a few middling seasons to start his career he broke out in a big way in 2018, earning his first NPB All Star Game appearance in the process.

Even though he's an infielder who can man second, short and third, he's seen a lot of time in the outfield too. Making him a Ben Zobrist-type utility guy who can actually hit.

 

And because I know I'm never going to have a chance to talk about them again, here's what I got in the two Chunichi Dragons Rookies & Stars packs.

I'm only able to show nine of the 10 total cards I got because one of them was a Raidel Martinez that I left with my collecting friend (the same one who took part in the Home Run Challenge) to see if they could get a Martinez TTM return on my behalf next year.

Card #3

This last promo is merely a card I brought back with me. This shiny Mickey Mantle that I remember getting at a card shop in my current area back in 2012. At the time I thought this promo was cool because it was exclusive to US-based card shops. Back then Topps didn't really let the Japanese card shops in on the fun regarding promos/giveaways, so anything like this that I could get when I came stateside was a bit of a treat. Of course that quickly changed (I consider that a good thing BTW). But more than that, my outlook on these promos probably changed drastically when I managed to secure all four of the special refractors (Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez, Reggie Jackson and Mickey Mantle) from the same NY-based shop I got the Mantle above from for like a dollar. Made the thing a lot less fun for me real quick.

And that was another edition of three cards.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

3 Cards (Vol 45)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

Card #1

Alright, starting off this edition will be a postcard sent to me a while ago from NPB Card Guy.

NPBCG obtained this postcard of Shigeru Sugishita's Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame plaque for me during his trip to Japan. I've talked about the God of Forkballs a lot (and will continue to do so) so my initial plan was to translate the plaque. But then I found that translating it word for word would be difficult because everything on here looks a big run-on sentence. So instead here's my best "paraphrase" of what the plaque says.

After venturing through Teikyo High (School) and Meiji University, (he) entered the Chunichi org in year 24 of the Showa Era (1949). With his unique forkball and fastball he dominated and became one of the best in an era of Professional Baseball (read: NPB). Especially in (Showa) 29 (1954) when he had a standout season that also led to his club's first title in which it won its first Central League championship and then the Japan Series championship. That accomplishment in itself is praise worthy. From (Showa) year 34 (1959) and onward he coached/managed for Chunichi, Daimai, Hanshin and Kyojin.

Oof, that was a lousy translation job on my part. Though the fact that I couldn't tell what some characters were didn't help.

Here's the back. It just says 1985 HoF Entrant Sugishita Shigeru-shi (Mr.) Relief

As well as that it's the Japanese HoF and also lists the address for the museum.

Thanks again for the card NPB Card Guy.

Card #2

Back to the Dragons team-exclusive cards. This Road to Victory kinda became a very apt name for this set as this was the year the Dragons look to win their first Nippon Series title since 1954. They instead got stomped by the Nippon Ham Fighters. Though they'd enact their revenge by winning it all in 2007 against those very same Fighters.

Oh right, these came out in 2006 BTW. This is different from the previous stadium goodies I showed in that it's basically just a regular card with your typical card back info (except for stats). This one goes more trivia facts like how his sign is a Virgo, how his favorite car is his BMW, how his blood type is A, among other trivia facts like his first game/hit/home run. Based on how all of these things were said to be as of March 1st (of 2006) and how there's a bit about what Araki himself expects from himself this season, these might've been pre-season goodies.

Card #3

Hitoki Iwase is the Japanese Mariano Rivera. He holds the record for most saves (among other stats) all time in the NPB after decades of dominance.

The back of this is more standard. Only unlike the last scratch-off card I showed (which was God-knows how long ago), this one made it so that if you got three Doalas and that day happened to be a Tuesday, you'd get a signed shikishi by a player. If you don't know what a shikishi is, I wrote a post about it a while ago. Meanwhile if you got three Doalas on a Thursday you'd get an iron-on patch. Hmmm, the gap between those two prizes seem very wide to me.

3 Cards (Vol 44)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

Card #1

Back to BBM again, ugh.

At least we're going with the good players route though.
Tyrone Woods was originally drafted by the Montreal Expos in the fifth round of the 1988 MLB Player Draft. He was noted for having power but not much else in his career. His power only got exemplified when he went to go play in the KBO and the NPB. In Japan he played with the Yokohama BayStars for a bit before signing with the Chunichi Dragons. During that NPB stint he was a three time All Star, a three time Best Nine Award recipient, a Central League HR leader, and won a ring with the Dragons in 2007 when they won the Nippon Series.
After the 2008 season ended his career came to an end and he's returned stateside. I don't have any legit sources for this but apparently he work(ed) as a volunteer fire fighter.

Card #2

In the NPB there are very few "short-term stops" as my friend Nick calls them, unless it's a veteran going to the Giants just to say they were on the Giants. But one of the few I can remember in recent times that actually happened to the Dragons is Michihiro Ogasawara there.
Ogasawara was originally drafted by the Nippon-Ham Fighters in the third round of the 1997 NPB Player Draft. Prior to turning into a Fighter he'd spent some time as an amateur playing for NTT (a telecommunications company) in the industrial league. Originally he was a bit of a utility guy as he manned both the outfield and catcher positions. He actually made it NPB ichigun/big league debut in 1997 too and would later go on to be a mainstay for the Fighters. In 1998 the Fighters were starting to realize they had a legitimate bat on their hands and at a premium position (catcher). In 1999 they converted him into an infielder to keep him healthy (preserving the bat in the process). The move worked out because in 2000 he'd go on to lead the league in several offensive categories. He was noted for his speed early on and eventually for his power. In 2001 he became the second player in NPB history (the first being Ichiro Suzuki) to record over 180 hits in multiple seasons. With the Fighters he'd accomplish a lot, a Nippon Series championship ring in 2006 being the icing on top at that.

I usually don't comment on appearances but I dig the distinguished samurai beard look Ogasawara's got going on. Even with a baseball cap the vibe just comes through.

Anyway following the 2006 season Ogasawara signed on for a four year deal with the Yomiuri Giants. Typical Giants stealing the good players away from other teams using their money. He and Alex Ramirez would form a powerful core that made the Giants downright unbeatable at times. Also in 2009 he was a key member of the Team Japan squad that won the 2009 WBC Championship. Then the 2010's started and after 2011 he'd see reduced playing time due to injuries. He signed on with the Dragons for the 2014 and 2015 seasons but he was used primarily like Jim Thome was in the tail-end of his career, a powerbat off the bench to provide some pinch hitting. He did pretty well in 2014 FWIW but the writing was on the wall.

He retired following the 2015 season and immediately became a coach for the Dragons' minor league team.

Card #3

My track record with notable Dragons rookies I've pulled myself is pretty dismal, which is why this rookie card of Dragons mainstay Ryosuke Hirata is something I appreciate more and more.

Hirata was drafted by the Chunichi Dragons in the first round of the 2005 NPB Player Draft. He made his ichigun NPB debut in 2006 as a rookie and later earned a starting role in 2007. In the 2007 playoffs he had some big moments and was a part of the Nippon Series Championship team. Despite that it wasn't until around 2011 that he became a mainstay for the Dragons. Mainly due to injuries. But after he did become an everyday outfielder for the Dragons, he made the most of it. Turning into a solid player who could (at worst) be considered a player on the Dragons that an actual contending team would play. This was especially true in 2018 when he earned a trip to his first NPB All Star Game even as the Dragons continue to turn into ass around him. Though that said, injuries took away a big chunk of his first half this year so the Dragons' terribleness is starting to infect him. Which is why the SoftBank Hawks should trade for him by giving the Dragons two-to-three big name prospects.

And that was another edition of three cards.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

3 Cards (Vol 43)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

Card #1

Hell yeah. For the first time in months we're back to the wonderful stadium exclusive cards!
And who better to greet us back to that line than Mr. Chunichi himself, Masahiko Morino?! I've talked about Morino in the past. He's one of my favorite Dragons players of all time. To me he's the face of the Dragons franchise (or at least the face of all Dragons franchise hitters) and I'm glad to say I have a small but modest collection of his.

This is an interesting stadium giveaway. In that it's a lot more generic than the ones I previously blogged about. The ones I blogged about way back in the early parts of this series' run were scratch off cards/tickets where lucky fans could win prizes. But this is just a regular baseball card, sans the stats. It features Morino's profile information, the Dragons logo, and the Nagoya Dome logo. So this really is a trading card. It doesn't serve any addition purpose beyond being a normal card.

Card #2

This is a "Hero Interview" shot featuring former Dragons reliever Takuya Asao.
I've talked about Asao before, you can read my writeup here. This is a checklist card from a Calbee set so the back ain't shit. But this front is everything to me. It's Stadium Club level photography. A full bleed photo with something in the frame to make it fun (the Doala theme mic) and artsy (the out of focus background). Apparently this interview took place in front of fans on April 3rd, 2009.

Card #3

Closing us out with our first EPOCH One card in a while (and also our last for a while).

It features card of Joely Rodriguez setting the record for fasted pitch thrown by a southpaw in the NPB.

The back mentions that it happened on September 15th, 2018. Rodriguez came into the game in the seventh inning against the Hiroshima Carp (in their ballpark, Mazda Stadium too). He threw a 159 heater and recorded the fastest pitch every thrown by a southpaw in the NPB. He racked up three K's that innings and dominated.

Also peep the "Limited Edition of 49" sentence. That means that this one out of only 49 total copies that exist. Woof!

And that was our first BBM-free 3 cards post in a LOOOOONG time. Feels great!
Unfortunately that brand will come back into the picture soon, but hey, it felt good to have this breath of fresh air again.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

3 Cards (Vol 23)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

Card #1

Leading us off is one of the very first baseball cards I ever acquired way back in the distant year of *checks notes* 2010. This is pretty near and dear to me because Akinori Iwamura was one of my favorite players when I first got interested in MLB. Here in 2019 I can appreciate other things than I did in 2010 about this card like how it's a bit smaller (it's got a shorter width than your typical card), and how it's one of the few Japanese cereal releases I've seen by Topps. Given what happened to Upper Deck in 2010, that sounds about right.

Anyway the back features a lot of fun stuff. Right off the bat there's a blurb about how Aki Iwamura's favorite number was one. So much so that his jersey number as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays was 1. And according to the New York Times (according to this card), he started training for the season on 1/1 at 11:11:11 AM. Woof!
This is also the only card I have where there's a Japanese recycling logo on its bottom right. Apparently this goes with the plastics.

Card #2

Pretty much all of the Fukudome's I found on this last trip were immediately sent to P-Town Tom. Why? Because well I'm indifferent to Fukudome (regardless of whether he's a Dragon or not), plus Tom's collection would benefit from them a lot more than mine would. But that promotion card there is the lone Fukudome card I brought over for myself since I figure that my collection should have at least one Fukudome card in there somewhere.

This card in particular is an ad for the then-upcoming 2004 BBM Chunichi Dragons set. With a breakdown of the various subsets found in the product.

Card #3

Now here's something you don't see everyday on our corner of the blogosphere, a Playoff Prestige card from 2005. Or really any card from 2005!

This was pulled in a pack by me at around age 11 or 12. At the time I was just happy to pull a Yankee but found it weird how he wasn't wearing the usual Yankees uniform. Then I realized that sometimes cards were made with players in their old uniform and the card companies put a blurb on the side to let collectors/fans know what happened.

If I had to guess this was probably the fourth or fifth Yankees card to ever come into my possession in general. Right after 2005 Topps cards of Jorge Posada, Tony Womack and Mike Stanton. One of these days I'd love to complete the 2005 Topps flagship Yankees team set, but have you seen the prices those fuckers command as singles? My goodness, the 2000's rarity factor is slowly turning into inflation. Which is bullshit.

That's nothing to say of Prestige. Though I wouldn't really want to collect it either. Maybe one day I might have Randy Johnson sign this card, but if he charges nearly $200 again then I'm perfectly okay with this remaining the same way it always has for the past 14 years.

And that concludes another edition of three cards.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).

3 Cards (Vol 16)

So after my trip to Japan I brought back a big stack of cards. There were so many cards in that stack that I had no idea where to start when blogging about them. So instead of condensing them all into a big post (which most of you will only read a quarter of), I decided to blog about them at a rate of three cards at a time. Maybe some of them will make for interesting material, maybe they won't. Let's find out.

You folks are in for a treat today, let me tell you.

Card #1

We're starting off strong with one of my favorite Ichiro Suzuki cards. This Diamond Heroes card from 2000 that features him running away from an explosion. Apparently BBM let Michael Bay design card sets.

The blurb at the bottom mentions how there's a lot of hope that Ichiro will become the first NPBer in history to hit for a .400 average. In years past he'd been able to sustain a .400 average until early June. Would he finally be able to do it in 2000? Unfortunately he couldn't as he only hit a measly .387. He then later came to America in 2001.

Card #2

Here's a Calbee card of Ichiro. One I've always been partial to because it's got a cool motion effect going on where Ichiro is the only moving as everything else appears to be a blur/stuck in time.

The card mentions how Ichiro had won the batting crown six consecutive times and established the NPB record for OBP for the first time in three seasons in 1999. The card finishes off by modestly saying that Ichiro's expected to have a good season in 2000. Refer to what I said back in card 1 to see how that went.

Card #3

Finshing off with a rare oddball item of Ichiro issued by Konami.

This is from the 2006 Konami Powerful MLB set. A physical board/card game that I've been meaning to blog about forever but was always too lazy to. I pulled this Ichiro out of a pack myself (Ryan from This Card Is Cool was there as my witness) back in Japan and I was very hyped to get this. And yes, these cards had foily and x-fractory parallels. Your collections are incomplete.

And that was a Ichiro-rific edition of three cards.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).