Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Paving the Road


Things are beginning to wind down around here.  The regular school year ended twenty days ago.  I immediately headed up to Lake Oswego for a few days, then drove down to Ashland for a few more days.  We're now into the summer school phase.  It's not my normal gig.  This time around I'm working for my district... and absolutely love it.  I've got two more weeks and my official summer break begins.

Until then... cards and the blog are still on the back burner.  I have a few posts I've been tinkering with that are sitting in my drafts folder.  However this one was more of a spur of the moment post.

Over the weekend, I opened up a PWE from Tom over at The Angels, In Order.  Back in January he sent me a BAG (blogger appreciation gift) and it only took me five months to get around to it.  Sorry about that Tom.

There were six cards in the envelope, but one card stood out:

1991 Line Drive Pre-Rookie AAA #175 

Lenn Sakata is one of those ballplayers that takes me back to my childhood.  Obviously he wasn't a superstar, but he was the only Japanese MLB player I knew at the time... and he rocked a perm.  In a sense, he paved the road for my Japanese Athlete PC.

Fast forward three decades and he's probably more known for minor league managerial career where he holds the record for most wins in California League history.  Most of those wins came while he was managing the San Jose Giants off and on from 1999 to 2021.


Over the years, he's managed and coached all over the place.  As you can see from this card, he was the hitting coach for the Edmonton Trappers back in 1991.  And thanks to Tom, it's the sixth Sakata in my Japanese binder.

I'm sure there will be at least one reader who is curious or interested in the other guy on the card.  If that's you, you can read more about Gary Ruby here.

Tom also sent me these 1992-93 Upper Deck checklists of my Jordan PC:


When this product came out, I was taking a break from the hobby.  I had just finished building my 1992 Fleer Ultra baseball set... and the card shop I had worked at closed its doors.  That's my long winded way of informing you that I never opened any of this stuff.  And all five of these Jordans are brand new to my collectionThank you Tom.

While we're on the subject of Japanese-Americans, here's a card I picked up off of eBay back in mid-April:

1998 DuoCards Happy Days #11

Just like there weren't a lot of Japanese baseball players back in the 80's, there were a lot of super famous Japanese-American actors either.  Only two really come to mind.  George Takei is one of them.  Pat Morita is the other.  That's why I was very happy to see that Mr. Morita had a card in this set after it was featured on A Pack To Be Named Later back in April.


I was first introduced to Mr. Morita as Arnold on Happy Days, but as the back of his card states... he is "perhaps best remembered as the indomitable Mr. Miyagi" from the Karate Kid movies of the 80's.

I recently discovered that my father and him were born only three weeks apart.  His birthday was last Friday.  Happy belated birthday Mr. Morita!

As for the rest of you...

Happy Monday and sayonara!


Extra Innings!

Just realized this is the perfect opportunity to show off a ton of new additions to my Japanese Athlete PC that were sent by John over at Johnny's Trading Spot across several care packages.

Let's start off with the hits:


Shogo's stint in the MLB only lasted two seasons, while Ishii spent three seasons with the Dodgers and one with the Mets back in the 2000's.


Like Akiyama, Hirano's MLB stint was short, but when he returned to the NPB he was very successfulKenta on the other hand is still pitching in the MLB after eight seasons.
 

Johjima was one of those players (along with Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, and Kurt Suzuki) that made me decide to start collecting Japanese baseball players.  



Yamamoto is a Hawaii guy.  When I went to the Giants game a few weeks ago, my cousin's son brought him up.  He mentioned that he was now coaching high school and had just won a state title in Florida.



Kazuo had a decent MLB career back in the 2000's, but he's probably best known for being the first Japanese infielder to sign a MLB contractYamaguchi spent his first fourteen seasons in the NPB before coming over to play with the Blue Jays.  After less than two seasons, he went back to Japan.  But he pitched in more MLB games than Shunsuke Watanabe.  If his name sounds familiar, he is credited as giving up the longest home run ever hit at the Tokyo Dome to Big Papi:


I don't have the best of luck when it comes to sharing YouTube videos on my blog, so if this clip didn't load, you can watch it here.

Moving along... here's a card of a Japanese chef throwing out the first pitch at a Mariners game:

2017 Topps First Pitch #FP-31

Can't say I am familiar with Mr. Morimoto, but I definitely know Mr. Fuji:

1991 Classic WWF Superstars #47

Honestly... this guy deserves to be up there with Mr. Sakata and Mr. Morita... because he's another one of those Japanese performers that paved the road for so many others.

Here are a few other WWE wrestlers with a sumo wrestler and a UFC fighter:


Technically Ulambayaryn Byambajav isn't Japanese, he's Mongolian.  But I collect sumo wrestlers too.

I also collect Japanese F1 and NASCAR drivers as well as soccer and hockey players:


And don't forget... golf is a sport too:


I wouldn't consider myself a huge PGA fan, but if I had to pick a current golfer to root for... it would be Mr. Morikawa.

Thank you John for this massive contribution to my Japanese Athlete PC!


Extra Extra Innings!

Back in February, Rod over at Padrographs pulled this jumbo Masataka Yoshida out of a 2023 Topps Update Super Box:

2023 Topps Update Oversized #US5

As I stated in the comment section of his post, I'm a sucker for oddball stuff like this.  As you can see on the back of his card, he had a solid MLB debut:


And he finished 6th in the AL ROY voting last year.  He's cooled off quite a bit this year.  Regardless... this is another massive contribution to my Japanese Athlete PC:


This card is huge!  It's more than 4x larger than Yoshida's standard rookie card.  Thanks Rod!

12 comments:

The Angels In Order said...

I impose no time limit on blogging about a PWE I sent, nor do I require a post be written at all (mostly because I myself can't keep up!). I'm just glad the cards arrived and that you like them. Keep up the great blogging Fuji, you are much appreciated.

Brett Alan said...

Morimoto is an absolute legend in the culinary world. He was one of the main Iron Chefs on both the Japanese and US versions of the show. He showed up on the finale of Top Chef this season and the contestants were in absolute awe of him.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

May the next two weeks be a breeze! Then load up and visit the other sunshine state. :)

Dan said...

Morimotos's restaurant in Napa might be one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at in my life. If you can make the trek up there from the Bay Area, highly recommended.

Matt said...

Very cool mail day!

Rebel Coyote said...

You need two-time Indy 500 Takuma Sato card. He got a few from this year's Parkside Indycar set

NPB Card Guy said...

Lenn Sakata had two stints coaching for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan - 1995-98 and 2008-09. Unfortunately as far as I know, he doesn't have any Japanese baseball card.

On Japanese-American actors - I don't know if you're familiar with Jack Soo (whose real name was Goro Suzuki) who tragically passed away from cancer in 1979. I was a big fan of "Barney Miller" (still am actually) and he was a big part of that cast.

Jon said...

I loved Mr. Fuji as a kid. To be fair though, I loved pretty much all of the heel managers as a kid.

sg488 said...

As a long time Orioles fan ,I always assumed Sakata was hawaiian,he was born in Hawaii and went to high school in Hawaii.Never read anywhere that he was Japanese.

Fuji said...

the angels in order - thanks again tom. i actually have two cards i'll be sending your way very soon

brett alan - my friend who watches cooking shows filled me in on him. now i kinda want his autograph

johnnys trading spot - one more week! not sure i'll be heading out to florida anytime soon. but i'd like to visit and meet up one day.

dan - it's been a few year since i went up to napa. but the next time i go, i'll try to remember to look up his restaurant. i just hope they let me wear flip flops, a t-shirt, and cargo shorts. if not, i might have to do take out

matt - and very old :D

rebel coyote - thanks. just looked him up. if i can find a sportlots sell who has cards of him and offers free shipping (to the box), i'll add them

npb card guy - bummer. sakata does have some minor league cards that i can chase down one of these days. and i totally remember that guy on Barney Miller. I'll have to see if there are any cards of him

jon - i always wished he'd become a nice guy (in character), but not sure that ever happened

sg488 - i just assumed he was japanese because of his last name. i guess he could have been adopted. according to wikipedia he is of japanese ancestry

Derek said...

Nice to see some Habs content. Nick Suzuki is definitely a fave in our household!

Fuji said...

derek - hoping to add a few more suzuki cards to the collection. right now i only have two. but i think the next time i place an order on sportlots, i'll target some of his cheap singles