The Japanese Jackie

Back on September 1st, 1964... Masanori Murakami became the first Japanese baseball player to play in a MLB game.  His time with the San Francisco Giants only lasted a little over a season, but his place in baseball history will hopefully be remembered forever.

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Murakami back in 2015 and I have slowly been building a collection of his cards ever since.  Last month, I purchased two autographed inserts of him off of eBay...

2025 Topps First Pitch #FP-2

This card captures Murakami throwing out the first pitch at Oracle Park on May 17th, 2024 in celebration of the 60th anniversary of his MLB debut.

2024 Topps Japan Edition 1989 #89J-48

This card features a cool koi border design and was inserted into 2024 Topps Japan Edition packs.  I'm not 100% sure, but based on the scoreboard it looks like Mashi posed for this photo at Wrigley Field either in 1964 or 1965.

Both of these cards were part of auctions that I won for a combined price of $64.09 ($26.19/$29 + $12 shipping + $4.74 tax).  Before bidding, I researched CGC x JSA pricing... which begins at around $15 per card if you're submitting items in bulk.  With that knowledge, I was very happy to win both of these auctions.

After playing for the Giants in 1965, he was ordered by the NPB commissioner to return to the Nankai Hawks for the 1966 season.  Thirty years later, Hideo Nomo became the second Japanese player (born in Japan) to cross the Pacific to play in the MLB.  Since then over seventy guys have followed their lead including one of the greatest contact hitters in the 21st century and one of the greatest players currently in the game.

Each year, it's exciting to see who will follow in Murakami, Nomo, Suzuki, and Ohtani's footsteps.  This past season fans watched guys like Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto, and Tatsuya Imai make their MLB debuts.

Kenny (over at Torren' Up Cards) recently sent me ten pack of 2026 Stadium Club NPB.  It'll be interesting to see if any of these guys eventually come over to the states to play:

Some of you might recognize Tsuyoshi Shinjo (in the #3 spot).  He spent a few seasons with the Mets and Giants in the early 2000's.  These days he's managing the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

2026 Stadium Club NPB #139

Can't say that I recognize the other nine guys, but maybe one of them will be the next Hideki Matsui or Masahiro Tanaka.  Only time will tell.  Until then, I'll keep collecting cards of NPB players in hopes that one day I'll get to see them play at Oracle Park or Sutter Health Park.

Thank you Kenny for donating these Stadium Club cards to my collection.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

The Eras Post

Heat waves suck.  Blog Bat-Arounds rule.

Yesterday Mother Nature turned up the heat in my area and doesn't plan to cool things off for at least the next four or five days.  My happy place is in the mid 50's to mid 60's.  I can tolerate temps into the mid 70's, but anything in the 80's becomes miserable.  Today the temperature will peak in the high 90's.  Not cool (both literally and figuratively).

But what is really cool is when bloggers support each other's Blog Bat-Arounds.  It's been awesome reading everyone's contributions to Kenny's which asked people to write about their proudest collecting achievements.

On Friday, Matt over at Cards Over Coffee started another one.

Taylor Swift had The Eras Tour.  Bloggers have The Eras BBA.

The challenge if you choose to accept it is to discuss your favorite era of card collecting and show off any recent additions to these collections.  I chose the word "challenge", because it was way too hard to pick a single era for my response.  On any given day, my favorite card collecting era will likely come from one of these three...

A.  The 80's

I'm going to start off with the decade where I officially dove into card collecting.  I absolutely loved opening packs and looking for rookie cards of guys like Ron Kittle, Vince Coleman, and Mike Greenwell.  When I was a kid, they were easily my favorite thing to collect.  These days you can add in regional issues like 7-11 discs, Granny Goose A's, and Mother's Cookies SGA sets into the mix.  Yup.  I love the 80's.

I couldn't think of any 80's regional issues that I've purchased recently, but here's a Roger Clemens rookie card I purchased on eBay back in April:

1985 Donruss #273

You may (or may not) remember the 1985 Donruss factory set I picked up at a flea market back in January for $15.  Unfortunately, it was missing the Clemens.  It took a few months, but I finally completed the set for $6.81 ($4.99 + $1.82 shipping/tax).

B.  The 90's

As Matt pointed out in his post, the most innovative cards were produced during this decade.  It was card companies competing against each other at its finest.  Thanks to the 90's we have cards made out of acetate, metal, wood, and leather.  The shiniest parallels came out of that decade.  And that was the decade that introduced pack pulled autographs and game-used memorabilia.  Plus there were things like holograms, die-cuts, embossed cardboard, Dufex technology, etched foil, tree ornaments, and a bunch of other things I'm forgetting in the moment.  Yup.  90's cards were innovative and awesome.

Unfortunately a lot of these cool 90's cards are skyrocketing in popularity and prices, so I haven't purchased any from eBay or at any card shows.  Luckily, I started reorganizing my collection over the summer and I came across hundreds of cool inserts that were hidden in boxes.  Here are three that I figured Matt might appreciate and fit this segment of the post:

1999-00 Topps Gallery of Heroes #GH6

1997-98 Skybox Z-Force Zensations #18ZN

1997 Fleer Metal Universe Marvel Metal #1

I did find some cool baseball inserts too, but I like to showcase some basketball and football every now and then.

C.  The 70's

One of my favorite things to collect are 70's lenticular Kellogg's cards.  I feel like my dream flea market find involves stumbling across a collection of non-cracked Kellogg's cards at a reasonable price.  It's not likely to happen, but this collector can dream.  Those cards alone make this era a personal favorite.

But I also love collecting 70's cards of athletes I grew up hearing about on television and reading about in magazines.  My two binders dedicated to 70's baseball are arguably the ones that I flip through the most on a regular basis.  I just love staring at classic designs like 1972 and 1975 Topps and flipping through pages filled with The Swingin' A's.  Yup.  The 70's rocked.

I rarely add any 70's Kellogg's cards to my collection these days.  Like 90's stuff... they're too expensive for my budget.  It's even less common for me to share a card I purchased at a flea market before I feature it in a Flea Market Find post.  However I picked up this lovely lenticular at the De Anza Flea Market yesterday:

1976 Kellogg's #19

I have a few Flea Market Find posts that I need to hammer out.  But the next one I publish will feature this weekend's haul since you've gotten a sneak peek.

Thank you Matt for starting another round of Blog Bat-Arounds!  I hope others will join in on the fun.  The more, the merrier.  Reading your responses will make this heat wave I'm suffering through more bearable.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

A Few Goodbyes and a Pair of Set Completions

I'm an A's and Padres fan.  You know that.  And there are times when the San Francisco Giants are my least favorite franchise in baseball.  This isn't one of those times, but they're definitely in the bottom five.

That being said... I wanted to kick off this post by honoring Mike Krukow with a proper sayonara salute as he officially retires from the Giants broadcasting booth after dedicating over four decades to the franchise.  

1983 Mother's Cookies Giants #12

1983 Mother's Cookies Giants #11

He's a Bay Area legend who will be remembered for being half of the Kruk & Kuip duo.  This week... Duane Kuiper announced to his fans that he has been diagnosed with throat cancer and started treatment.  Not sure what the future holds for him, but he assured fans that he would be there to support his close friend on his special day.

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Signatures #HSMK

Enjoy retirement Mr. Krukow!  And here's to a speedy and full recovery Mr. Kuiper.

Now let's check out a pair of PWE's from John (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) and Bo (@ Baseball Cards Come to Life!).

I'll start with three cards for two set/project builds...

1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars #5

1986 Topps Glossy All-Stars #5

2023 Topps #330

John sent me the Robin Yount which gets me one step closer to completing the 1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars set.  The Ripken and Rodriguez cards were from Bo and complete both of those sets.

Here are a few bonus cards from John:

I'm guessing I won another Maddux Monday giveaway.  I'll have to see how many of these I need for my collection.

Bo included these:

I needed the Matsui in the middle!

Thank you John and Bo for helping me with my set builds!

Hope all of you are enjoying your final weekend of baseball.  I'm feeling much better today and should be back in the classroom tomorrow.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Here are a pair of bonus sayonara salutes...

2014 Topps Chrome Refractor #140

I'm sure everyone watched Verlander being greeted by his daughter yesterday as he stepped off the mound for the final time in his MLB career.  What a touching moment.  Congratulations on your retirement Mr. Verlander!  See you in Cooperstown in a few years.

The sports world also lost a legend earlier in the week:

1994-95 Action Packed Basketball HOF Autographs #27

Bob Pettit played before my time, but I knew he was one of the NBA legends from the 50's and 60's.  However... Bulldog (@ Nothing If Not Random) wrote a nice tribute that truly opened my eyes to his greatness.

Rest in peace Mr. Pettit.

The Struggle is Real

Anyone else struggling to comment on blog posts?

I've tried to comment on several blogs this morning and every time I get the "Publishing..." box without the comment actually being published.  I was able to leave a comment on a Word Press blog, but not on any Blogger blogs... including my own:

I'm hoping this is just a temporary glitch on Blogger's end... or a simple fix on mine, because commenting on your posts and responding to comments on my blog are a very important part of my hobby.  If anyone has any insight, please let me know down in the comment section below (assuming you are able to).

2026-27 School ID Card

Switching gears, I apologize for the lack of posts.  I was hoping to hammer out some Flea Market Finds, but the start of the school year is typically hectic.  Plus I've been more tired than usual, so when I get home I've been recharging my batteries watching tv rather than playing with my baseball cards.

I even missed out on publishing my annual birthday post.  Here are the trio of cards I've added to my Birthday PC since last year:

2017 Topps Now #547

Back on September 1st, 2017... Clayton Kershaw returned from the DL to help the Dodgers snap a five game losing streak.

Unfortunately the victory came at the expense of my favorite National League team.

2019 Topps Now #778

On September 1st, 2019... Justin Verlander pitched the third no-hitter of his career.

After walking Cavan Biggio in the bottom of the first inning, he shut down the final twenty-six batters he faced in the game (14 by strikeout).

2022 Topps Now #825

On September 1st, 2022... Spencer Strider struck out 16 against the Colorado Rockies to set an Atlanta Braves single game franchise record.

Warren Spahn holds the all-time franchise record with 18 strikeouts in a single game back in 1952.  At the time the Braves were in Boston and the Cubs were their opponents.

Speaking of birthdays, here's a cool present I received on Wednesday from one of my students:

1996 Collector's Edge President's Reserve #375

Stubblefield is one of his defensive coaches, so he got me a signed card for my birthday.

Well that's it for today.  I'm really hoping that the "comment" issue will be fixed soon.  Although reading blog posts are a huge part of my interaction with fellow collectors... exchanging comments is equally important.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Update

Don't have a solution to the problem, but Angus, John, and Greg have reached out to me to let me know that they tried to comment on this post without success.  However Jim was able to comment on this post.  Looks like it's impacting some people, but not everyone.