Take A Look

It's National Read a Book Day!  To honor it, I figured I'd show off some cards related to books...

#1:  1999 Greats of the Game Autographs #NNO

Bouton's Ball Four is one of the most famous baseball books out there.  I haven't read it, but it's waiting for me on my Kindle (which hasn't been turned on in ages).

#2:  1956 Topps #125 & 1962 Topps #153

I've been collecting the cards featured in The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book and I discovered two more cards sitting in my collection.

This brings me up to eight different cards from the book out of a possible 241.

#3:  1978 Topps #36

Eddie Murray's rookie card was featured in Josh Wilker's Cardboard Gods:

This is my favorite book involving baseball cards.  Wilker writes about his life while tying in baseball cards from his childhood collection.  In one of the chapters, he talks about Murray winning the 1977 AL Rookie of the Year Award and mentions that Mitchell Page was robbed.

1978 O-Pee-Chee #75

I'm sure some of you are scratching your heads... wondering if Wilker is crazy.  But according to this article, it was a closer race than you might think.  In fact The Sporting News even named Page their AL Rookie of the Year.

#4: 1975 Osato Mini Card #NNO

This card is featured in SumoMenkoMan's book, Sumo Menko & Card Checklist (Fourth Edition):

If you're a sumo wrestling fan or a sumo card collector, you should think about purchasing a copy for your bookshelf.  It contains hundreds of colored photographs of vintage and modern sumo cards, along with detailed descriptions about each of the sets.

The next card wasn't featured in a book, but it's a trading card of one of my favorite authors...

1994 Authorcards #NNO

I've read a few of her books, but The Giver and Number the Stars are my favorites.

And in honor of National Read a Book Day, here's the book I read today:

Barbed Wired Baseball is a children's picture book about the life of Kenichi Zenimura, who is often referred to as the Father of Japanese-American Baseball.

It focuses on Zenimura's time at Gila River War Relocation Center where he built a baseball field and organized a baseball league.

This is the first book I've read in months.  As a teacher, I'm not proud of this.  The sad fact is I'd rather read card blogs than books.  But I do have an ever-growing stack of books piling up on my nightstand.  One of these days I'll start chipping away at them.

What's the last book you read?

Do you have a favorite book?  Sports book?  Trading card book?

Hope all of you are enjoying a safe Labor Day weekend.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

Good Friends & Cool Collectibles

Family has always been an important part of my life.  I'm not just talking about my parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, and extended relatives.  I'm also referring to the closest of friends who I consider to be my family as well.

One of these people is my best friend who prefers to be anonymous, but I've referred to her on this blog many times over the years.  She's the person who knows and understands me more than anyone else in the world.  This is both a blessing and a curse... because she's not afraid to keep it real... even when the truth hurts.

That being said... it also means she hooks me up with very thoughtful Christmas presents.  I wanted to show off two of the presents I received from her this year, because they fit with the content of this blog.

The first one is a signed copy of George Takei's graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy:

Takei is probably most famous for his role as Sulu in the original Star Trek television series, but he's also known for his support for LGBT organizations.  This book covers these components of his life... but primarily focuses on his childhood and the impact Executive Order 9066 and his family. 

I haven't sat down and read it yet, but I am looking forward to it.

This graphic novel covers a variety of collections ranging from my love for Japanese culture to collecting graphic novels and autographs.

The other present that fits right in with this blog was this pair of Mandalorian Pez dispensers:

Thank you Aiko for these thoughtful presents and always being there for me.  You're the best.

The next thing I wanted to share on my blog was my small Christmas display before I take it down this week:

This was the first Christmas I've spent at my house in as long as I can remember, so I couldn't leave it completely undecorated.  This display is a combination of this year's and last year's Harry Potter Lego advent calendars with Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus Brickheadz.

I wanted to quickly thank another close friend and co-worker who hooked me up with her husband's Nordstrom discount and acquired both of these advent calendars.  Not sure if you're reading this homie... but I truly appreciate you grabbing these for me.

Okay... now let's get to someone you should be familiar with: Ryan a.k.a. SumoMenkoMan.  A few weeks ago, he sent me a care package and I'm finally getting around to showing off the goodies.

Let's kick things off with the newest addition to the Tony Gwynn PC:

2020 Topps 206 #36

I've been wanting to add this card to my collection since I read Jongudmund's post about this controversial piece of cardboard back in October.  Okay I'm being a little dramatic by calling it controversial, but Jon does make an excellent point about questioning Topps including Gwynn in this particular set.

If there is one downside to not buying cards on COMC anymore... it's that I'd love to snatch up a few of the cheaper parallels of this card.  Hopefully I'll be able to pick them up on Sportlots instead.

Ryan also tossed in two more Topps 206 singles:

2020 Topps 206 #16

2020 Topps 206 #44

I'm always excited to add a new Posey to the binder.  He's a fan favorite in the Bay Area and rightfully so.  As for Murphy... did you know that he finished 4th in the 2020 AL ROY voting?  Me either.  But he seems to be the starting catcher for the A's in 2021.

The big ticket A's item in his care package was this Willie McGee:

1991 Topps Desert Shield #280

Anyone who followed baseball back in the 80's and 90's knows who McGee is.  And anyone who collected during that era knows this story behind these Desert Shield cards.

But some of you might not remember his short stint with the Athletics back in 1990... when the A's traded for him late in the season to add another bat to their lineup for their playoff run... which resulted in the Cincinnati Reds sweeping them in the World Series.

Speaking of the Reds... they became the last MLB team to have a player from Japan on their team when they signed Shogo Akiyama:

2020 Topps Update 1985 #85TB-4

Like many of you... I haven't opened up a lot of 2020 products, so this is my first card of him.  Ryan also sent me this pink refractor of Akiyama's former teammate:

2020 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor #48

Kikuchi and Akiyama were Seibu Lion's teammates from 2011 to 2018.  It'll be interesting to see if either of these guys will be able find success at the MLB level.

My Japanese PC is receiving a lot of love.  Here are five more cards for my multi-sport binder:

I'm not exactly sure what product these cards are from, but they seem to come from an insert set titled "Amazing".  It's a shame that there aren't more multi-sport products on this side of the Pacific Ocean.

Back in the 90's, I remember Signature Rookies released a product called Tetrad which allowed collectors to pull cards of baseball, basketball, football, hockey, track & field, ice skating, and gymnastics from a single pack of cards.

And I'll go ahead and round out Ryan's care package with four very special sumo wrestling cards.  At first glance these might just seem like some run-of-the-mill sumo cards... but there's actually a story behind these two wrestlers.

Back in early December, I was getting my weekly fix of Jomboy and I came across this awesome video of this 5'5" sumo wrestler taking down this gigantic 6'3" wrestler.  If you're not familiar with this guy's videos... his commentary is always good for a smile and he throws out some pretty interesting content.

Anyways... getting back on track... the first person I thought of when I saw this video was Ryan... so I texted it to him.  After going back and forth... he gave me a brief history lesson on Enho who is the shorter wrestler in the video:

2018 BBM Sumo #75

2019 BBM Sumo #62

2019 BBM Sumo #73

As a fellow short Japanese guy... I was absolutely stoked to see these slide out of the padded envelope.  And to top things off, he included the guy Enho threw:

2019 BBM Sumo #1

Is this card gorgeous or what?  Huge props to BBM for producing some fantastic sumo wrestling cards.  Here'a a peek at the back:

Thank you Ryan for another generous care package... and for your friendship.  Hopefully we'll be able to get together when things are safe and hit up some card shows and Del Taco.  And once again... congratulations on celebrating your 5 Year Blogiversary last week!

This holiday season has been unique and honestly could have been depressing without spending it with the company of my family.  But thanks to things like Zoom making the world a little smaller... and great friendships it turned out to be much more positive experience than I had anticipated.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #141: G.O.A.T Autograph

We interrupt your regularly schedule publishing of A Few of My Favorite Things to bring you a soon to be out of date Flea Market Finds post for you.

I've been sitting on this post for more than a week and I can't delay its publication any longer.  To make a long story short... it's flea market season and things are starting to get backed up.

Today's post deals with my trip to the De Anza Flea Market back on August 3rd.  These days, I don't have very high expectations of finding cards at this particular flea market.  However as luck would have it, I came across a guy who purchased a huge collection and was trying to piece it out set by set:

Purchase #1:  1993 Topps Baseball Set (x2)  $40

The dealer had a little bit of everything from 1981 Fleer to 1994 Topps.  He knew his stuff and had lists of completed eBay sales, but his prices were reasonably competitive.

After going through his 1993 Topps sets, I settle on these two because they had the cleanest Jeter rookie cards.  I'll binder up one of them.  Not quite sure what I'll do with the other one.  Regardless, I'm excited to see Jeter join Mariano at Cooperstown next year.


Purchase #2:  Signed Gretzky: An Autobiography  $2.50

Found this book sitting among hundreds of other books and was stoked to see this on the inside:

I immediately texted my buddy who specializes in autographs and he replied "looks good".  If this thing is legit, this would be the second Gretzky autograph I've found at the flea market in recent years.  If not, it set me back a few bucks.


Purchase #3:  2014 Topps Star Wars Perspectives Box  $10

Never seen or heard of this product, but for $10 I just couldn't pass it up.  I'll bust it open one of these days.  Until then... it sits with my other unopened boxes.

Purchase #4:  2019 Allen and Ginter #183  $2

Already showed this card off on Saturday's post, but gotta document it for my records.

Purchase #5:  Krazy George Talking Bobblehead  $7

I'm trying my best to avoid eye contact with any bobbleheads I stumble across at my weekly trips to the flea market.  They're hard to clean and take up too much space.  But Krazy George is a part of my childhood, so I've been looking for one of these.  It worked perfectly when I handed the lady my seven dollars.  However by the time I got home, Krazy was mumbling at best.

Well that wraps up this week's flea market haul.  My buddy and I headed down to Los Angeles last weekend and hit up a few flea markets, attended a Dodger's game, met up with a fellow blogger, and attended a pair of card shows.  Stay tuned for that post.

If things go as planned, A Few of My Favorite Things should be back next Tuesday.  Same time.  Same place.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!