I got a card envelope from Japan last week.
I've received card envelopes from all over the world -- England, Australia, France, the Netherlands, probably places I'm forgetting -- but it hasn't happened for a good while. So it's very cool when the return address says "Tokyo".
It was sent by Zippy Zappy, of Torren' Up Cards. As you might know, he now lives in Japan. He used to live in the same state I did, now he's real far away. But the cards are still coming.
He sent me my first Roki Sasaki card, the card you see here. It's from the 2021 BBM set, I'm assuming "Cross Torrent" is some sort of insert? Sasaki's Japanese rookie cards appear to be from 2020, this card came out in his first year in the Japan Pacific League. He pitched for the Chiba Lotte Marines for five years before coming to the Dodgers. He's been a regular starter for really just the last three years, and his thing is he strikes batters out a lot.
This card got me thinking when we'll see Sasaki's first card in a legitimate Topps set (Topps Now doesn't count). I know it won't be 2025 Series 1, unless it's some sort of unannounced short-print. I'd like to see a his card in Series 2, but maybe it won't appear until Update?
Thinking back to my younger days collecting new arrivals, in 1977, players who were signed as free agents the previous fall/winter showed up in the '77 set, thoroughly airbrushed. We didn't mind (or more accurately, were clueless). I remember being kind of excited seeing the new players with their new teams, even if they really weren't. (The player's card who first comes to mind is always Joe Rudi with the Angels).
Later, when the Traded set was created in the early 1980s, those new players or new players with new teams would show up in that Traded set, often-times still airbrushed. You would have to wait until the very next year for a card of that player in his actual uniform -- think Steve Sax and Topps, it wasn't until 1983 that he showed up in a legitimate Dodgers uniform. Meanwhile, Donruss and Fleer gave you Sax as a real Dodger in 1982, thank goodness for those two.
So I suppose I should be able to wait until 2026 for Sasaki in a real Dodgers uniform based on that. But I've become spoiled and impatient and card companies made me that way. So Sasaki better be a Dodger in Series 2 or Update.
Who knows how he will perform when that card does show up. As much as online people moan about the Dodgers "signing everyone" Sasaki hasn't shown a thing yet. Right now he's still just "Big in Japan."
But I'm pretty confident in the Dodgers' brass in this area. As a refresher, ZZ sent a companion with Sasaki.
It's a cute little card of Shohei Ohtani as a (Nippon) Ham Fighter! It's a Calbee card, but I'm not quite sure of the year, either 2016 or 2017, which is right before he came to the majors.
Ohtani was once "Big in Japan," and now he's big everywhere. We'll see what Sasaki can do.
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