Sunday, January 16, 2022

Stuff on Cards: Players Modelling Bad Behavior for Kids

 

The above is card #480 from the 1974 Calbee set. Its from the "ON" series which features various pictures of Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima.

According to the back, the photo is not from 1974 but rather from 1960, early on in both player's careers.  

This one came up for auction last week and I put a few bids on it but got totally blown out of the water, it ended up selling for 36,501 Yen (about $350 US), way over my budget.  This is further evidence that the price of cards has exploded here like they have in the US, a couple of years ago this would probably have been a $50 card.

I really just wanted it for my "weird stuff on cards" collection because this one is a doozy.  I mean this is pretty in your face stuff in terms of having a card blatantly depict players modelling bad behavior for children on a product that was meant for children.  Hey kids, look at how cool Shigeo Nagashima is when he smokes cigarettes!  I mean, I get that this card is old and views about smoking have changed a lot over the past 50 years but I think even in 1974 it should have been obvious that maybe this wasn't a great image to be showing kids.  It makes me wonder if Calbee had been producing cards during the PED era if they would have made a topical subset showing candid behind the scenes images of players injecting each other with human growth hormone or something like that.  

The card is interesting also because it makes Sadaharu Oh look pretty subservient.  It reminds me of a quote by Hiromitsu Ochiai, who was a bit of a renegade player (that I talked about in my previous post). Early in his playing days he quit his university team because he hated the way that junior players were expected to light the cigarettes of senior players and basically dote on them.  As he explained: "If I'd wanted to be a nightclub hostess, I'd have gone to work on the Ginza" (quoted  in You Gotta Have Wa).  Oh came up a year after Nagashima and it would seem from this card that he was expected to perform nightclub hostess related activities for Nagashima as a result, despite not working in Ginza.  Ochiai wouldn't have gone for that at all.

Out of curiousity, does anyone know of any other examples of cards (in the US, or anywhere, any sport) depicting players modelling bad behavior for kids?

For reference, here is some other oddball stuff  that has appeared on vintage Japanese cards:

Beer

Destroyers

Kimonos

Vintage Cars

Oden Shops

14 comments:

  1. One of Sadaharu Oh's rookie menko cards looks like it shows him giving Nagashima a back massage. There's also a menko card of Tetsuharu Kawakami where it looks like Nagashima is acting like a butler to him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, yeah I know those cards. Actually I've been meaning to do a "stuff on cards" post about that menko with Kawakami on it for ages, it looks like he's wearing a night robe in it, which is something you don't see on cards often.

      Delete
    2. There are sumo cards of them drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Part of the Japanese cultureI guess.

      Delete
    3. That is interesting, I was wondering if there were sumo cards with smoking or drinking on them.

      I don't think its so much "Japanese culture" as it is "culture 50-60 years ago". Japanese culture today would definitely not be cool with sports cards showing players smoking (I don't know of any more recent that the 70s that show either alcohol or tobacco on them).

      Delete
    4. There certainly haven’t been any recent smoking cards, but a recent drinking one. More of a celebration shot, but clear they were drinking.

      Delete
  2. Awesome card. And thanks to this post, I'm gonna associate Oh with the term "nightclub hostess" for the rest of my life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I came here to say something very similar to this.

      Delete
    2. LOL, I feel bad for adding that phrase to his legacy!

      Delete
  3. Great to see you back, Sean!

    It also looks like they're smoking in bed. Which is an even quicker way to kill yourself than just smoking.

    Really, you'd think that Calbee could have come up with a photo of Oh and Nagashima eating potato chips. There's got to be one out there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks!

      And I don't know how I missed that but you are right - smoking in bed is such a major fire hazard! Its bad behavior on so many levels.

      Now I'm curious if there are any pics of them eating chips around....

      Delete
  4. Menko:

    Andy Miyamoto arm wrestling: https://cubeupload.com/im/LazyMF/d72Scan10744.jpg

    Nagashima and Kawakami enjoying tea and/or sake: https://cubeupload.com/im/LazyMF/b8aScan10745.jpg

    Bromide:

    Kozuru riding motor scooter without a helmet: https://cubeupload.com/im/LazyMF/541Scan10746.jpg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, those are awesome, thanks! The Nagashima/Kawakami one I have (its the one NPB Guy and I were talking about in the comments above) but I hadn't seen those other two before.

      Delete