1952 Calbee / Matsuo

 

In 1952 and 1953 Calbee produced a small number of baseball card sets that were distributed with its snack products.   These are so old that back then Calbee wasn't even called Calbee yet.  The company, identified on the card backs, was still called the Matsuo Ryoshoku Kogyou Corporation (Matsuo Food Industry Corporation) rather than Calbee. The Engel guide (in describing set JF62a) notes this confusion, stating:

 "The Calbee Company was originally called the Matsuo Company.  Apparently the name change occurred around the time these cards were being produced."    

This seems to be slightly inaccurate.  Its correct that today's Calbee was called Matsuo when these cards were produced, but the company actually changed its name a couple of years later, in 1955.  In 1952 and 1953 when these cards were produced the name "Calbee" (which appears on some of them) was merely the name of a product produced by Matsuo, not the name of the company itself. 

Anyway, that nitpicking aside, these cards are quite hard to find and only rarely come up for sale on Yahoo Auctions or elsewhere.  For many years as a Calbee collector I have wanted at least one for my collection, but every time I'd find one for auction I would inevitably get outbid on them, year after year.

Last week that losing streak finally came to an end and I won an auction for one!  It features Mainichi Orions pitcher Takeshi Nomura (listed as Kiyoshi Nomura in Engel, but his Japanese wikipedia page lists him as Takeshi.  From the same source it seems that when he joined the Senators in 1946 his name was listed as Kiyoshi, but after that season he changed it to Takeshi and thus would have been Takeshi when this card came out if I'm not mistaken).  Nomura had a satisfyingly mathematically average career - finishing with a 73-73 record  mainly compiled between 1950 and 1956 (plus a few games in 1946).  Between 1950 and 1952 he was a pretty dominant starter for the Orions, including an 18-4 record in 1950, but his career fell off pretty rapidly after that brief period of dominance (which fell right when these cards were produced).  

The card back is a bit interesting.  The text in blue ink describes a redemption in which you can send in a specific combination of 10 cards that you collect (consisting of one manager, one pitcher, one catcher, four infielders and three outfielders) and in return they will send you a prize - either a glove, a bat or a French doll.  

The red ink part seems to contain an update on the redemption as it differs from what the blue ink says.  Instead of a glove, bat or French doll, it says you can get a glove, a French doll, a harmonica or a fountain pen.  The company must have run out of bats and stumbled across a supply of harmonicas and fountain pens at some point during the sale of these. 

Some of the Calbee sets from this time period are pretty plain to look at, with promotional ads taking up most of the card fronts on some (JF63a and Jf63b in particular) but I quite liked the look of this Nomura card which is why I decided to put in a bid that was serious enough to actually win it!