An International Post

This was a pretty stressful week in the classroom, but the World Baseball Classic is off and running... so there's balance in the force.

2006 Upper Deck Inaugural Images #II-30

Figured I'd focus on the positive and use the WBC as an excuse to show off some international stuff.

International Item #1:  Japanese Magazine Cards

These uncut sheets of cards feature characters from a 70's Japanese television show called Kamen Rider.  I wasn't able to find a year or magazine title, but I'm guessing they're from the 80's.  They were part of Ryan's advent calendar, so maybe his haiku will provide a hint:

Unfortunately... no specific details on these cards.  That's okay.  I like a good mystery.

International Item #2:  Three Countries, One Card

2007-08 In The Game O Canada Autographs #A-VS

Vicky Sunohara is a former Canadian hockey player who has won a ton of gold medals including a pair of Olympic gold medals (2002 and 2006) with Team Canada.

Up until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of her.  However Ralph over at Divas Hockey Ink published a post featuring her.  As soon as I saw her last name, I looked her up and discovered she's part Japanese and part Ukrainian.

I commented on his post that I might look for a copy for my Japanese athlete PC.  He ended up having an extra copy which he generously sent my way.

International Item #3:  Italian Stickers, Japanese Skaters

1979 Panini Hockey '79 Stickers

These forty-seven year old Panini stickers feature Japanese hockey players from possibly the 1978 Ice Hockey World Championships. were sent to me as part of Angus' (over at Dawg Day Cards) December care package.

1979 Panini Hockey '79 Stickers

I tried to pair these puzzle stickers up and scan them, but they kept sliding around on the glass.  Ended up using these 1948 Bowman card sleeves and a 9-pocket page to keep them in place.

And if you're confused about the Italian ties, these stickers were printed in Italy:

1979 Panini Hockey '79 Stickers #244

Angus made another contribution for this international post...

International Item #4:  Canadian Cardboard

I'm an O-Pee-Chee fanboy.  

1972 O-Pee-Chee #169

It wasn't always that way.

1972 O-Pee-Chee #170

Back in the 80's and 90's, I would have traded them for their Topps counterparts.

1978 O-Pee-Chee #177

These days, they're equals... companions... counterparts.

1981 O-Pee-Chee #261

Simply put.  They're both awesome and highly cherished pieces of cardboard.

1985 Leaf #28

The same thing applies to Donruss and Leaf.

I'm grateful that something clicked in my brain, encouraged me to openminded and give trading cards produced outside of our country a chance.

Thank you Angus, Ralph, and Ryan for all of these awesome additions to my collection!

And here is today's question of the day:

Are you watching or following the World Baseball classic?

If so...

Who do you think will win it all?

I've watched a few prediction videos and it seems like the vast majority are picking one of three teams:  USA, Dominican Republic, or Japan.  My brain is picking the loaded Team USA squad led by Judge, Witt, Skenes, and Skubal.  My heart bleeds Samurai Blue.  But my gut tells me the Dominican Republic's bats are going to power them to the 2026 title.

Whoever you pick... it's gonna be a fun and entertaining two weeks of baseball.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

The Inside the Park Home Run

Card blogs rule.  They've been a big part of my life for eighteen-plus years.  I'm constantly learning about new cards and discovering interesting sports trivia from people around the world who share a common interest.

Last month, Greg over at Night Owl Cards wrote a post about the 1980 Burger King Pitch, Hit & Run set which was the inspiration for this post.  He showed off the back Willie Wilson's card which happened to mention his five inside-the-park home runs in 1979.  That blew my mind and led me down this road of research into inside-the-park home run trivia.  If you're interested in this topic, my two primary resources were Baseball Almanac and Wikipedia.

Here are five facts that stood out to me...

1956 Topps #33

On July 25th, 1956 Roberto Clemente hit the only walk off inside-the-park grand slam in MLB history.

1975 Cramer Circle K Phoenix Giants #12

On September 2nd, 1975 Johnnie LeMaster hit an inside-the-park home run in his first MLB at-bat.  What's kinda cool is that he'd only hit 21 more home runs during his MLB career that spanned 12 seasons and consisted of over 3,000 at-bats.

1986 Topps #162

On October 4th, 1986 Greg Gagne hit two inside-the-park home runs in a single MLB game.  It's the last time anyone has accomplished that feat.

1992 Leaf Gold #435

On May 8th, 1992 Butch Henry hits the first and only home run of his MLB career.  It's the last time a pitcher hit an inside-the-park home run in a MLB game.

2007 Topps Update #UH222

On July 10th, 2007 Ichiro Suzuki hits the only inside-the-park home run in MLB All-Star Game history.  

It's the first and last inside-the-park home run of his career.  I was kind of surprised that Ichiro didn't hit more.  The same thing goes for Rickey Henderson.  Did you know he only hit one inside-the-park home run during his 25 seasons in the MLB?

1980 Topps #482

It happened on July 6th, 1980 in his sophomore season.  

Thanks Greg!  Not sure I ever would have spent so much time looking into inside-the-park home runs had I not learned read the back of Willie's card, but I'm glad I did.

I was also happy that I purchased the 1975 Cramer Circle K Phoenix Giants team set (for the Johnnie LeMaster), because it contains a card of Mike Cramer (founder of Pacific cards):

1975 Cramer Circle K Phoenix Giants #26

Speaking of LeMaster, I also discovered on When Topps Had Balls that he wrapped up his career in Oakland with the A's.  Thank you Gio!

That's why card blogs rule.  They continue to teach me interesting facts about sports and our hobby.

I'll wrap things up with today's question of the day:

Do you have any favorite inside-the-park home run trivia?

Do you ever purchase a card or cards to fit a post you are writing?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments down below.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Car(d) Enthusiast

Twenty years ago, I purchased this Acura TL:

I fell in love with this model after taking a road trip to Vegas in my friend's car a year earlier.  It had been super reliable the first nineteen years, but last April I started having some major electrical issues that led me down a very expensive path.  First I replaced the battery... then she needed a new alternator.  That solved the issue for eight months, but in December I started having issues with my battery AGAIN.

I knew it involved a parasitic drain, but couldn't figure out what was drawing power when it wasn't in use.  So last week, I took it to a mechanic who specializes in electrical issues.  He identified the problem and fixed it... but holy smokes.  Car maintenance can be crazy expensive.

I'm now left with some decisions.  The first one is whether or not I'm planning on keeping this car.  She's no longer my daily driver and I definitely don't need three cars.  But she's literally one of my dream cars and I've babied her the past twenty years.  She was garaged for sixteen years and is in amazing condition.

Decisions, decisions.  If I decide to keep her, I have about ten thousand more miles before needing to change the timing belt... which is going to cost a pretty penny.  I'll probably just list it on Craigslist, test out the market, and see if I receive any reasonable offers.

Well that recaps what's going on with me on the automotive front.  In regards to the hobby, I received a few care packages this week.  One involves a really cool addition to my Japanese athlete PC, which I'll show off in a future post.  Another was a box of stuff from John over at Johnny's Trading Spot.

I also received two PWEs with some 2025 Topps Holiday for my set build.  These nine were from Elliptical Man over at The View from the Third Floor:

And these five were from John:

Thank you Brendan and John for helping me out.  Here's where I'm currently at with this set build:

Chris... if you're reading this... five of the cards in EM's PWE were ones you had set aside for me.  I no longer need these: 37, 72, 105, 111, and 153.

I want to wrap up this post with this lenticular Johnny Ray:

1983 Kellogg's #24

Today is his birthday... along with my mom's.  Happy birthday Mr. Ray!  And happy heavenly birthday Mom!  Miss and love you so much.

Everyone else... here is today's question of the day:

What's your view on cars?

Are they just a means of transportation?  Are you a car enthusiast who appreciates them for more?  Maybe somewhere in the middle?

Although I'm not one of those guys who works and tinkers on them, I'm grateful to own two of my dream cars.

I look forward to reading your comments and seeing if any other card collectors are car enthusiasts too.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #185: Taro, Terry, & Talkin' Baseball

Mother Nature helped California with their drought concerns by dumping a lot of rain throughout the state over February Break.  It cleared up on Saturday enough to motivate me to check out the Branham Flea Market.

The ground was dry and the skies were fairly clear, but I think the cold temperatures scared away a lot of the regular vendors.

I did manage to purchase a few items for my collection though...

Purchase #1:  Sports Related LP's  $13

There's one vendor with sports memorabilia that you can always count on to be there.  I've purchased plenty of stuff from him over the years.  He's the guy that sold me the uncut Mother's Cookies sheets last month.

He had a box filled with sports related record albums, but only two were still sealed in cellophane:

Terry Cashman One Stop Along The Way

The Ballad of Johnny Bench (1983)

Terry Cashman Talkin' Baseball

American League (1982)

Sometimes I buy record albums because I enjoy the band.  Other times I just think it's a cool piece of history that fits into my collection.  These two LP's fall into the latter category.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Cashman's Willie, Mickey, & The Duke found on Talkin' Baseball.  If not, it's a classic you can listen to here.  I wasn't familiar with the other song, but I found it on YouTube.  If you want to hear a slow jam about The Little General, click here.

Purchase #2:  A Classic from my Childhood  $1

My second purchase was from a vendor I hadn't seen before.  He had a bunch of old books.  I'm always on the lookout for books I read as a kid.  I might have struck out on finding baseball cards, but I did find this:

Taro and the Tofu by Masako Matsuno

I don't remember owning this book when I was little, but I was very familiar with the cover.  It's one of those books I checked out during our weekly trips to the library.

It's a story about a boy who received too much change from the tofu salesman and is faced with the decision to keep the money or give it back.  Not going to try and convince you that this is a timeless piece of literature, but I will say that it's a tale that stuck with me all these years.

That wraps up my flea market finds for this past Saturday.  I still have some free time, so I'm going to continue sharing some gifts from Ryan's advent calendar.

Let's start from the beginning with his Day 1 haiku:

There were two parts to this present.  The first part is a vintage trading card that pictures Mt. Fuji rising above Katase Beach on Enoshima:

Here's a look at the card back:

Thanks to Google... I was able to translate the card back which essentially talks about Enoshima and Mt. Fuji being in perfect harmony and beauty.

The second half of the Day 1 present was this Christmas card from 1912:

The cover features another great look at Mt. Fuji.  Here's a peek inside:

According to Google, this image shows off Itsukushima Shrine located on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Bay.  I'm super impressed at how well crafted this Christmas card was for being 114 years old.

Both of these items are huge additions to my Mt. Fuji PC.

Well that's it for today.  Hopefully the weather is nice in two weeks for the De Anza Flea Market, because this recent trip to the flea market wasn't very memorable.

And thank you Ryan for these two vintage Mt. Fuji items.  They're awesome!

Everyone else, here is your question of the day:

When you think of sports, are there any songs that immediately pop into your head?

I've got two:

#1:  Celebration by Kool & the Gang (1980)

Whenever the A's won at the Oakland Coliseum, this song played.  Can't hear this song without it taking me back there.

#2:  Winning It All by The Outfield (1992)

I was a huge basketball fan for decades and I watched as many NBA Finals games as I could.  This song played after the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Title in 1996.  It's a great song by an under-appreciated group.

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Until then... 

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!