The other "World" Series

 

I probably don't need to tell anyone that "World Series" is a ridiculous name, and has been since people started playing baseball in other lands.

The Series is starting tonight, but meanwhile another championship baseball series to declare the best in the land is going on right now across the ocean, under the much more reasonable name of the "Japan Series".

I don't suppose anyone's going to rush to rename the World Series the "North America Series," we're too far into this now, but for those who read my blog and nothing else, whoever wins Game 5 of the Japan Series tomorrow -- the Orix Buffaloes or the Tokyo Yakult Swallows -- takes a 3-2 lead in the seven-game series.

 

As if to recognize that there are other championships currently, I recently received some Japanese cards from Dave, aka, the NPB Card Guy from the Japanese Baseball Cards blog.

 

He nicely sent some cards that have connections to the Dodgers -- either they were Dodgers and then played in Japan or they are Japanese (and in one case, a Korean playing in Japan) and then played for the Dodgers.

 

All of the above players either started out with the Dodgers or played with the Dodgers at some point in their Major League careers before moving on to Japan. I have Dodgers cards for some of the above guys. Some players' time with the Dodgers was so brief, no cards of them in L.A. duds were made. 

Dave mentioned that he probably sent more Ralph Bryant cards than I needed, but that's not true! It does come close to matching the number of Ralph Bryant Dodger cards I have.

These cards are of Japanese players (plus Chan Ho Park, who is Korean) who moved on to careers in MLB and with the Dodgers. Takashi Saito and Hiroki Kuroda are the two most successful. I love getting Saito cards.

 

This doesn't fit into either of the above two categories but it does show the team that modeled its uniform style after the Dodgers, the Chunichi Dragons.

I just saw this cards for the first time on Torren' Up Cards. It's from Topps' 2022 set of Nippon Professional League players and, as ZZ explained, it's the usual mail-it-in effort from Topps.

I don't need to know Japanese to know that's the most wasted space I've ever seen on a card back.

 

Sadaharu Oh never played for the Dodgers but -- I'm a bit embarrassed to say this -- it's just my second Sadaharu Oh card! (If you don't remember, this was the first).

Like many American fans, Oh was the first Japanese player I knew, his feats were bizarre to me. Just when I had gotten used to Hank Aaron's home run total I was reading that somebody far away had 800 home runs? What?!?!?

But the real prize of this envelope of Japanese cards came in the form of rather slight piece of paper that measures only 2-by-2 3/4 inches.

It's a Japanese Ron Cey card! (OK, it's actually a sticker).

This fascinating item is from a 1975 set called "Mr. Baseball". The pitcher in the photo is Tsuneo Horiuchi. I didn't know of the existence of this item before seeing this, although the Japanese Baseball Cards blog dedicated a post to this exact sticker six years ago.

The post says this photo was taken during spring training in 1975. Horiuchi's team, the Yomiuri Giants, played at the Dodgers' spring training site, Vero Beach, in '75.

I love getting oddball Cey items, I've accumulated quite a few over the life of this blog.

Not that a Japanese issue should be consider oddball. I mean their playoff system makes more sense to me than what the North American League currently has.