I came into work the other day and found the above pile of baseball cards lying on my desk with a note from one of my co-workers.
These are team issued cards produced by the Giants last year. They were given out as a promotion at games, each card has the date and name of the opponent they were playing on the day the card was given out:
I have a pile of 10 of them, not quite the whole set. The interesting thing about these is perhaps less the cards themselves than where I got them. The co-worker who gave them to me is actually the wife of a former Giants pitcher who still works for the team. He played for them for two seasons in the late 80s (he also pitched for the ni gun team for a few years) and, as a career highlight, struck out Randy Bass at one point.
According to my co-worker, the Giants had more cards than they needed and somehow they all ended up on his desk, so he gave her a few to give to me. Which is pretty cool - cards right from the source!
Several of these end up in the card shops too. I wonder how that happens if they're supposed to be given out at the games.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I now from my `source` that the Giants front office ends up with a lot of extras which they distribute to employees. Presumably they just made too many and Giants employees sell them to shops on the side!
ReplyDeleteHmm, let me see if I can figure out who your co-worker's husband is...Bass's last season was 1988...I'm going to guess it's one of Akinori Masuda (1988-89, would have to have struck out Bass in an open-sen game as he had no strikeouts in 1988), Yasushi Matsubara (1988-89, also Lions 1992) or Shigeharu Kamogawa (1987-88, also with Whales in 1990-91). Could also be Takeshi Yamada who played one year for the Giants (1987) and one year for the Hawks (1990).
ReplyDeleteCool cards. Are they all retired players or are their active players as well? The one I have has a different player on each side (I have the Nagashima/Matsui one). Are they all like that?
LOL, you are good! I`m a bit reluctant to say since I don`t know how my coworker feels about me blogging about her husband, but it is one of those guys you mentioned. He actually dropped by my office once and I got a chance to chat with him, nice guy (they also took me to a game last year).
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah,the cards are all retired players. The ones I have just have one player each.
The Japanese Baseball Database is good. I just know how to read :-)
DeleteThat's so awesome to see you got these Giants card from your source!
ReplyDeleteThanks, I hope my source my turn up some more this season!!
ReplyDelete