Brooks Robinson will save us all

 

I have this card from the 1975 NST set which I kind of like.  That is Brooks Robinson on the right and I think Earl Weaver on the left.  Shigeo Nagashima is the Giant and I don't know who the suit is.  

I like Brooks Robinson a lot.  Everybody does.  He's just a great all round guy that everyone can agree on.  Looking at the US from the outside these days it looks so violently divided along political, racial and economic lines I often wonder why Americans don't talk about Brooks Robinson more, because EVERY conversation I've ever had about him always ends up with me and the people I'm talking to smiling and feeling much more friendly towards each other, even if we didn't like each other much before we started talking about Brooks.  It seems to me Americans could use a lot more Brooks Robinson related chats. 

Such is the power of Brooks.  Watching the violence in Washington DC yesterday I wondered if they shouldn't have just flashed a big picture of Brooks Robinson where everybody could see it, then all the rampaging idiots would have been "Oh hey Brooks Robinson, he was so nice to me that time I asked him for an autograph" then they'd all drop their crap and leave.  Kind of like that scene at the end of the Naked Gun where Frank Dreben's speech has the same effect on the brawling Seattle Mariners and California Angels:

I met Brooks Robinson back in 1992 during my awkward teenage phase (which is to say during the entirety of my teenage years) at a card show in Toronto.  

He was just so damn nice.  He signed a photo of mine and a ball that my best friend Mike (on the right) had brought, both with personal inscriptions.  Then since the line wasn't long he chatted  with us, invited us behind the table to pose for pictures.  I'm pretty sure that if we had said we were hungry he would have said "Oh I make the best Rueben sandwiches.  You guys like Rueben sandwiches?  Wait here, I'll be right back, you are going to love these."  Then he would have gone off, somehow found the ingredients necessary to make Rueben sandwiches in the middle of a card show and a kitchen to make them in, made them for us, brought them back and then had lunch with us right there.  And his Rueben sandwiches would have been out of this world.  

Anyway, I'm glad that Brooks appears on Japanese cards too!

Missing Noses, Chins, Eyebrows and Foreheads: The Worst Baseball Card Photo Cropping in History

 

I recently added the above card, #177 from the 1975 NST set featuring Shigeo Nagashima, to my collection.  

Its notable for the fact that although it depicts Shigeo Nagashima it does not depict all of Shigeo Nagashima's nose.  Or his left eye.  Or his left eyebrow.  Or the top and back of his hair.

You can really see those beads of sweat running down his face though.

This is the 1970s Japanese baseball card paradox.  On the one hand they feature some of the best photography in baseball card history and completely blow away the boring posed spring training shots that appeared on most Topps cards in the US from that period.  They are loaded with interesting shots, some candid, some in action, almost all taken during the regular season during games in the player's home stadium.

On the other hand they also feature some of the worst photos ever, mostly due to really bad photo cropping like the one above.  For all its faults, I've never seen a Topps card which cut the tip of the depicted player's nose off.

I have a small type collection of these on the go now.  They include:

Card: 1977 Calbee #17

You wouldn't know it but this card features all time home run leader Sadaharu Oh and all time hit leader Isao Harimoto singing a victory song after winning the pennant.  You can't see the top half of Oh and Harimoto's head.  They cropped it out in order to create more space at the bottom of the card for.....the backs of some photographers.

Card: 1976 Calbee #646

This card features 1975 PL MVP award winner Hideji Kato.  All of him except the top of his head.

Card: 1987 Calbee Tatsuo Komatsu

Ever wondered what former Dragons' pitcher Tatsuo Komatsu's chin looks like?  To this day I still don't know.  

Are there any examples out there of American cards (or other Japanese cards) cropped this badly?

Stuff on Cards: Oden Shops and Wood Shoes

 

I've decided to make "Stuff on cards" a regular series on my blog, highlighting odd things that have appeared on Japanese baseball cards over the years.  Today's post: Oden shops.

This is card 55 from the 1975 NST set.  NST issued a few sets between 1975 and 1983.  Their sets were intended to be glued into albums (sold separately) so they are printed on thinner card stock than normal cards and the backs just have the card number and instructions on how to paste them into the albums, which contained more info about the player.  Dave has a good write up with more info about the sets here.

One thing I like about the NST sets is that they have a lot of  interesting photos.  Probably about 80% feature in game action, while the remainder feature random candid shots, often of players off the field in oddball situations which you almost never see in sets from the 70s (or other decades).  

This one featuring Shigeo Nagashima is one of my favorites.  He is just walking out of an oden shop.  If you've never been to Japan, this is what oden is (photo courtesy of the Wikipedia page for Oden):

I have  strong dislike for oden.  Everything in there just runs afoul of too many of my "I won't eat that" red lines - texture, taste, smell, appearance - nope, nope, nope and nope.  But its very popular here. 7-11s and other convenience stores in Japan don't have Slurpee machines, but they do have oden vats very similar to the one pictured above where you can scoop out whatever you want.

You can tell Nagashima is leaving an oden shop because the noren curtain he is emerging from says "Oden", as does the writing on the chalkboard to his left.  So I guess Shigeo Nagashima likes oden, which is not surprising since, as I said, its popular here.

Also though you have to kind of scratch your head about this photo - when was this taken?  They don't have oden shops like that in stadiums, this looks like a shop on some random street.  But he is in uniform and ready to play....except.... look at his feet!  He isn't wearing cleats, he is wearing geta (a traditional type of sandal that is made of wood)!  How is this allowed?  The manager of the Giants is not properly dressed in his uniform!

I mean, when he went into the oden shop he likely would have had to remove his shoes, but normally he'd just put them back on again when he left.  Geta are not something you have to wear to an oden shop or anything so its really odd.  Maybe he forgot his cleats, or a fan stole them and he had to borrow these?  Or there was some special event going on which for some reason involved both visiting an oden shop, wearing his uniform and wearing geta.  But I can't imagine what that would have been. This is just odd all around!

Previous Stuff On Cards:

Beer

Girls in Kimonos

Vintage Cars

American Professional Wrestlers