He is just such a cool figure. He was the first American baseball player to come to Japan after the war, arriving so early that the post war occupation hadn't finished yet (edited to note: first American player to arrive after the war, but not the first American to play in NPB). His feats have been described elsewhere numerous times so no need for me to go much into them. But they are impressive.
Perhaps less than his playing accomplishments I like the fact that he was a nice guy. Sadaharu Oh recalled a story about when he was a kid going to Korakuen Stadium and being in a crowd of kids trying to get autographs of Giants players. The other kids had placards and regular baseballs, but Oh was a poor kid and all he had was a rubber ball, which the players ignored. Yonamine noticed this, came over and signed Oh's ball. Years later when Oh was a rookie team mate of Yonamine he mentioned this to him and Yonamine said he remembered. He couldn't figure out why all the Japanese players weren't signing. Because nobody else would, he gave the big eyed kid, who he of course didn't know was Oh at that point, an autograph.
These cards, from the 1958 Marukami set (JCM 31b) and the 1958 Marumatsu set (JCM 32a) which feature him as a Giant. He also played for and later managed the Dragons here in Nagoya, which gives me another level of interest in him.
I'm not sure how many cards are out there of him, being a star for the Giants he appears on a lot of the tobacco card style sets from the late 50s and early 60s. But he doesn't appear in as many of the more colorful menko sets from the early 50s, which is a shame because those are awesome.
When I see his name in a Yahoo Auction search for old cards, I usually buy them. This has become a bit more difficult recently though. Yonamine is not a common name in Japan. In fact its not a name used in the Japanese main islands, Yonamine's father was Okinawan and the name uses kanji characters that are more commonly used there (my mother in law is from Okinawa so I know this from that half of the family).
So until a couple of years ago if you put the kanji for his name into a Yahoo Auction search it would only turn up stuff related to him. Now unfortunately there is a garbage J-Pop boy band of some sort that has a member named Yonamine, so when you do a Yahoo Auction search its about 95% J-Pop boy band merchandise, which is a hellish thing to have to browse through.
Just a word for the wise!
I will not tolerate this EXILE slander.
ReplyDeleteHey its only slander if it isn't true :)
DeleteDoes Yahoo Auctions not have categories, like eBay? There's no way to narrow your search to "sports collectibles" or something?
ReplyDeleteYonamine is super awesome, but he wasn't the first American to play in Japan after the war. Wakabayashi, at least, had been there since 1936, played through the war, and re-joined the Tigers in 1946 after the lost season. Yonamine was the first American to _arrive_ after the war, but he wasn't totally without company.
Something that's weird about menko cards is how often they re-use images. The picture on the card on the left shows up in about six dozen different menko sets (number may be exaggerated). There's another one of Kaneda where he's in the middle of a delivery, but from the angle looks like he's weirdly twisted around, that also shows up in lots of sets. But it's not like there weren't other pictures of these guys floating around, as your other two Yonamine cards attest.
Yahoo does have categories, but they are kind of useless (https://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspot.com/2019/01/why-is-yahoo-auctions-japan-so-lazy.html)
DeleteAlso there are no categories that menko neatly fit into. Some sellers list them in the general sports cards category, others list them as toys, some list them in a category for antique printed materials (like postcards) and sometimes they show up in other random categories. Its kind of a mess, so its best to do a search of all categories for vintage stuff like that.
And good point about Wakabayashi, I've edited the post to reflect that!
I've seen some of those other Yonamine cards with that photo, in fact there is another one that duplicates the pink background, identical to this card except that it has a white border.
There are a bunch of 1959 sets that are extremely similar to 1958 issues, just plus a white boarder. It wouldn't surprise me if the pink Yonamine that has a boarder is a Murakami 1959 set.
DeleteYeah, its from the 1959 set!
DeleteThe older menko are so cool and too bad there aren’t more him on those. That is a cool story of Oh and Yonamine. You are turning up some cool cards recently.
ReplyDeleteThey sure are cool. And thanks, some of these are older acquisitions but most are ones I've found on Yahoo Auctions recently!
DeleteThese are so awesome! I wonder where if Oh still has that signed rubber ball.
ReplyDeleteHe might. When Yonamine passed away a few years ago, Oh mentioned that story.
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