30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Once In A Lifetime Opportunity

When it comes to purchasing new cards for my collection, I refuse to discriminate.  I'll buy them online over at eBay, COMC, and at a handful of online card shops.  Plus I  purchase cards in person at the flea market, at the local wholesaler, and every now and then at card shows.

So when I first read Tony's Day #7 Challenge, which is to write about a card you bought in person, I figured it was going to be pretty simple.  Then I realized that I'm constantly writing about my flea market finds, card show hauls, and trips to the wholesaler, so that stuff has already been covered.

I decided to head over to my website, flip through my collection, and see if anything jumped out at me.  That's when I found this:


Two years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese born MLB player, during a book tour across the country.  Thanks to Brady over at St. Louis Cardinals Cardboard, I was able to participate in a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the book tour.  Some of the perks included autographed copies of Robert Fitt's book, "Mashi", along with a signed baseball and a few other items.

After I got my items signed, I decided to stick around to see if I could ask Mr. Fitts and Mr. Murakami some questions.  While waiting, I noticed that Mr. Murakami was signing his name in kanji at the request of some fans.

I hopped back in line and purchased an extra Turkey Red cabinet card, which Mr. Murakami happily signed in kanji.


Afterwards both gentlemen were kind enough to take a photo with me capturing the moment when I got to hang out with the player who paved the way for guys like Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, and Hideki Matsui.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

12 comments:

Once a Cub said...

Great story!

Chris said...

That's awesome, what a thrill it must have been to meet a baseball pioneer! The Turkey Red card looks great, especially with the kanji signature.

Man said...

What an honor to meet a legend and pathfinder-and the Cabinet card signed kanji!

Collecting Cutch said...

That's awesome! The card and signature look great.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Great picture and awesome story!

Kin said...

Great story...thanks for sharing!

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

It's sometimes amazing how a sequence of events can lineup perfectly so you end up with such a nice memory. Great choice for this theme.

Big Tone said...

Sometimes,we get so caught up trying to chase down what we don't have ,that we tend to overlook all the cool stuff we already have!This also makes me wonder what could have been with MLB's first Japanese born catcher Kenji Johjima.I know he was already getting up In age when he arrived.

BobWalkthePlank said...

Love it!

Pro Set Cards said...

Amazing experience! Congrats!

Commishbob said...

yup, can only echo the previous comments. That's an amazing card and the story you have to go with it only makes it better. This is what collecting is all about.

Fuji said...

thanks guys! it was truly an amazing experience

b man - might have missed that opportunity without you giving me a heads up. thanks buddy

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - i agree. that's why i'm a big time believer in fate

tony - johjima was the man! i have several 9-pocket pages dedicated to him in my collection