Doing Things a Little Differently

Every year my buddy Ryan puts together a thoughtful and generous advent calendar for me.  Normally I try to open it up and recap it in December... which is when it's intended to be opened.  Unfortunately I'm about a month and a half late, but you know the saying.  Better late than never.

After a busy weekend involving my first trip to the flea market this year, a pair of entertaining NFC playoff games, a friend's birthday lunch, and a few other household chores... I was able to sit down and crack open Ryan's advent calendar on Monday.  Let's just say... I was blown away.

He did things a little differently this year by writing haiku poems to help me figure out which gifts were for what days.  I figured I'd do things a little differently too.  Instead of writing two or three large recap posts, I'm going to break them down into smaller, more manageable posts.  I'll also be going against the grain and not following the order he prescribed.

Today's post covers some Yomiuri Giants related gifts including one of the coolest Japanese baseball collectibles I've seen:

What you're looking at is a vintage card game.  But before I dive into the details, here is Ryan's haiku:

The game comes inside of a cardboard sleeve that resembles a box for a Betamax or VHS tape:

Here's another look at the scoreboard:

On the left side of the game, there's an orange tinted box that slides in and out.  This case holds the cards.  There are a total of 72 game cards.  Here's a sampling of the deck:

I'm not sure if any actual NPB players are depicted on these cards, but regardless... the art is really awesome.

The game itself isn't new, but it's in great condition for being fifty to sixty years old.  It even came with the instruction manual:

Next up is the Day 10 present.  Here's the haiku hints for the present:

Do you think you know what he sent?  It was a stack of Japanese baseball card packs.  The first one was this 2025 Yomiuri Giants pack:

2025 BBM Yomiuri Giants Pack

He also sent me these three team specific packs:

2025 BBM Chiba Lotte Marines Pack

2025 BBM Nippon Ham Fighters Pack

2025 BBM Rakuten Golden Eagles Pack

Plus there were these 2025 BBM 1st Version packs:

I've already added the four team packs and one of these 1st Version packs to my Unopened Japanese Baseball Pack PC, but the rest I'm planning on tearing into eventually.

The next Yomiuri Giants present pays tribute to one of the greatest hitters in their franchise history.  Here's Ryan's haiku clue:

Last June, diamond legend Shigeo Nagashima passed away at the age of 89.  Ryan sent me a very cool tribute magazine that contained hundreds of cool photos and full career statistics of Sadaharu Oh's sidekick:

Weekly Baseball Shigeo Nagashima Tribute (6/18/25)

He included another tribute magazine, but it was for a different athlete from another sport.  See if you can guess the athlete using Ryan's hint:

Did you guess Thunder Lips?  If so, you're correct:

Weekly Pro-Wrestling #2269 (8/30/25)

Hulk Hogan passed away last July.  I had no idea he was so popular in Japan, but there were several photographs in this tribute featuring him with Japanese wrestlers.  Although I don't follow wrestling that closely, Hogan was the biggest name in the game when I was actively watching the sport back in the mid to late 80's.

The final advent calendar gift were a few items wrapped in a yellow bag, hence the following haiku:

The first thing I pulled out of the bag was this really cool Yomiuri Giants baseball mug:

In an effort to cut back on soda and sugary drinks, I've switched things up and have been drinking extra cups of hot green tea.  This mug will be added to the rotation.

He also tossed these two Seibu Lions items into the bag:

The jersey doubles as an insulated cold beverage holder and the plastic helmet reminds of the ones you get a ballgames with a scoop of ice cream.  I have a very small display of NPB memorabilia in my office.  I'll have to make more room and add these two items to it.

That wraps up five days worth of goodies from Ryan's (a.k.a SumoMenkoMan) 2025 Advent Calendar.  I'll be sprinkling more of his gifts into posts over the next few months.

Thank you Ryan!  I truly appreciate the thought and effort you put into building this advent calendar.

As for the rest of you, here are today's questions of the day:

Do you have a favorite baseball game?

Do you have a favorite professional wrestler?

Have you started doing anything differently lately?

My favorite baseball game is called Computer Baseball by SSI.  I've referenced this game in a lot of blog comments over the years.  It's a baseball simulator game that I played a lot on my family's Apple IIe back in the early 80's.  It used real players from famous World Series teams, so I learned a lot about guys who played before I was born.

My favorite wrestlers are Ricky The Dragon Steamboat and Asuka.  Grew up rooting for Steamboat.  As for Asuka, I don't watch her matches on a regular basis, but I enjoy collecting her cards.

As for doing things differently, well... I'm trying to watch what I eat and drink.  And since it hasn't been raining, I've been trying to make sure to reach 10k steps during the work week.

Well that's it for today.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!