From the Favorites Box: Shigeru Takada, 1976 JCM17 Multicolor #11

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.

About a year and a half ago, I shared an image of a vintage Japanese baseball card. It featured Shigeru Takada, one of the many stars on the dominant Yomiuri Giants teams of the 1970s.

The card wasn't in my collection, but I was so taken aback by the design that I referred to it as eye candy.

I also said the following:

"If I had the actual card in my collection, this blog post would have been part of my Favorites Box series. But alas, I only have the digital image of the card. At least for now." 

Well, I'm happy to say we've got an update on that "for now" statement. 

 

  

Mr. Takada is officially part of my collection!

A few months ago, some of the cards from this set appeared for sale on ebay. They were fairly affordable, considering the apparent scarcity. (It was the first time I'd ever seen any of them come up for sale.)

I added the Takada card to my ebay cart immediately, and after looking through a few of the seller's other listings, decided that Mr. Takada should have some friends over here at Nine Pockets Headquarters.

From left to right, that's Kenji Awaguchi (Yomiuri Giants), Senichi Hoshino (Chunichi Dragons), and Koichi Tabuchi (Hanshin Tigers).

The color and artistry these cards exhibit made them hard to pass up. I mean, look over on the right, for example. Koichi Tabuchi has just swung the bat and launched an absolute comet into outer space.

You might also notice that these cards are smaller than the traditional 2.5 x 3.5 inches. (They measure 2 inches x 2 5/8 inches.) Doesn't matter, though. They're still stunners.

Equally stunning is that the entire set consists of only 16 cards. So I'm a quarter of the way to set completion! That's not necessarily a goal, but if more of these cards come up for sale, I'd certainly consider adding them to the collection.

Here's what the card backs look like:

They're a little sparse. However, when you have such fantastic card fronts, who needs much of anything on the backs?

But hang on a second. There's a little more to share here.

The seller was kind enough to add a few extra cards to the package.

 

More menko goodness!

Clockwise from the top left, we have:

• 1948 Pinwheel Menko (JRM 26) #600 Hideo Fujimoto. Japanese baseball HOF 1976
• 1948 Pinwheel Menko (JRM 26) #800 Michio Nishizawa. Japanese baseball HOF 1977
• 1948 Multicolor Background Menko (JRM 19) #NNO Juzo Sanada. Japanese baseball HOF 1990
• 1948 Multicolor Background Menko (JRM 19) #NNO Noboru Aota. Japanese baseball HOF 2009

I'm always grateful for ebay card sellers who do generous things like this. I definitely added him to my "Saved Sellers" list.

But right now, it's really about the Shigeru Takada card.

This year has been much more about organizing and displaying the cards I already have, and less about purchasing more cards. I mean, I've picked up a few cards here and there. And I've made some trades to help me complete a few sets. 

But these cards? I just couldn't pass them up. And they're definitely not going in a dark box, inside another dark box, inside a closet. I'm going keep them a little more available—in the Favorites Box. 

They're pieces of art. And as collectors, we've got to make sure we appreciate stuff like this from time to time. Open up that box. When friends or family members stop by, get excited to share them.  

 

Look at these cards. These cards are EXACTLY why I love this hobby.

 

I think we all have examples like that in our collection. And for giving me that feeling—a card I enjoy so much that I'm eager to show it to other people—1976 JCM17 Multicolor #11 has a spot in my box of favorite cards.

Thank you again to Sean at Getting Back into Baseball Cards . . . in Japan for sharing this card a few years ago and inspiring me.

 

Completed Set: 1981-82 Topps Hockey

I thought I'd begin this post with a sell sheet that Topps distributed for their 1981-82 hockey product.

 

Check out those three bullet points on the left.

 

 

 

 

110 individual subjects? Sounds good.

 

All new colorful action shots? Sounds really good.

 

But did you notice that middle point? It was a special one.

 

Features top players from LOCAL teams

 

But what exactly did that mean? And how did it work?

 

Here's what Topps did. Instead of placing an assortment of cards from the entire set into wax packs and shipping them all across the country (as usual), the 198-card set would be separated into three equal parts. 

 

• 66 cards, numbered 1–66, would feature players from across the NHL, and be issued nationally.
• 66 cards, numbered 1–66 EAST, would feature only players from Wales Conference teams (Bruins, Sabres, Penguins, Whalers, Islanders, Rangers, Flyers, Capitals), and would be issued throughout the Eastern United States. 
• 66 cards, numbered 1–66 WEST, would feature only players from Campbell Conference teams (Black Hawks, Jets, Rockies, Red Wings, Kings, Maple Leafs, North Stars, Blues), and would be issued throughout the Western United States. 

 

So, if you lived in the Eastern US, your wax pack would contain a combination of the nationally issued cards and EAST cards. If you lived in the Western US, your wax pack would contain a combination of the nationally issued cards and WEST cards. 

 

On the surface, you can see how that might be appealing. Let's imagine a young Kings fan living in California opening WEST packs, and a young Islanders fan living in New York opening EAST packs. 

 

For the Kings fan, nationally issued cards included big stars from his favorite team, like Marcel Dionne, Charlie Simmer, and Dave Taylor—and also big Islander stars he probably would have enjoyed adding to his collection, like Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin, and Bryan Trottier. 

 

But in his WEST packs, he would've also had a chance at pulling 8 other Kings cards—including some lesser-known players that the Islanders fan in New York might not have been interested in. And in a similar manner, that young Islanders fan would've had a chance at pulling 10 other Islanders cards from his EAST packs that the Kings fan might not have been interested in. More players from your local team. Hooray!

 

Was the idea successful? Well, let's answer it this way: 

 

After the 1981-82 hockey set, Topps wouldn't produce another hockey set until 1984-85.

 

(Sad trombone)

 

And the '81-82 set did create a conundrum for collectors, regardless of where they lived: Was the complete set 198 cards? (1-66 National, 1-66 EAST, and 1-66 WEST) Or was the complete set only 132 cards? (1-66 National, plus the 66 EAST or 66 WEST cards you had access to in your region of the country)

 

What would you do, for example, if you were a big hockey card fan or set completist in the Colorado area? Would you ask your local card shop to contact a retailer in New York or Boston and ask them to mail you some EAST packs? I wonder if that happened on occasion.

 

But you know what? Despite these negatives, I'm going to give Topps some credit for trying something different. They actually created a similar numbering convention for their basketball set that same year. Good on them.

 

Okay, with all that background information out of the way, let's get to the cards.

 

Right off the bat, I love the design. The thin, colorful border has curved corners, and is not unlike the shape of a hockey rink. The team logo is nicely tucked into the border on the bottom. And that bold, yellow, diagonal team name is just excellent, regardless of how long or short the name is. I know I've mentioned this elsewhere on the blog, but hockey is such a dynamic, action-heavy sport, and diagonal lines help to bring that out. Just look at the three cards shown above. Hockey action!

 

Of course, since this is a set from the 1980s, that action font is sometimes offset by a notable lack of action in the photograph.

 

 

There were players standing around.

 

 

 

 

And then there were players who were outright tired.

 

 

 

Even Wayne Gretzky was taking a quick breather!
 

I'd be remiss if I didn't show a few airbrush specials, too.

Those poor airbrush artists went through the trouble of recreating the entire Jets and Penguins jersey logos, just to have them covered up by the team name. And look at Don Luce on the right. They airbrushed his entire uniform, but forgot to do his hockey gloves. D'oh!

 

If those cards get you down, don't worry. There are plenty of cards in the set that will pick you right back up. For example, just look at some of the leather goalie pad goodness you'll find.

 

 

I love those waffle-board blockers.

There was a good rookie class this season, too.

 

 

 

Five out of six of those guys would become Hall of Famers. 

And now let's get to the subsets. There were no record breakers. No highlights. No league leaders. But there were Super Action cards. And similar to the 1982 Topps football version, the hockey Super Action cards were the place you'd find a lot of the standout cardboard.

 

You'll find face-off scrums, physical puck battles, goalies making saves through traffic, players celebrating goals, and more. They tell a pretty accurate story of the game of hockey.

 

The other subset? Team leaders.

I was going to use the Oilers team leaders card here, simply to show how Wayne Gretzky was really coming into his own just a few years into his NHL career. For the 1980-81 season, he led the Oilers in goals (55), assists (109), points (164), and power-play goals (15). However, I couldn't say no to posting a card that showed that fantastic Colorado Rockies jersey—not to mention Lanny McDonald and his mustache.

 

Now let's talk about the card backs. Usually I show just one example, but this time I'm going to show three.

Topps provided some nice informational copy when there was room for it—mostly related to scoring. The black text on a blue background works well enough, although the height/weight/bio section gets a little tougher to read against the darker blue color. The overall design is the same on all three cards, aside from the East-West distinction. It's small, but it's there. (Top left, under the hockey puck.)

 

 

 

Kent Nilsson was part of the nationally distributed set. As you can see, those guys received five little stars under the puck instead of an "EAST" or "WEST" designation.

 

 

Finally, here's a checklist.  

 

Notice how it lists cards 1–132, not 1–198. The back of the card reveals why. 

 

 

 

 

It's the WEST checklist. The EAST checklist also lists cards 1–132, with the card back showing the 66 EAST cards instead.

Again, give credit to the folks at Topps. They really went all-in here!

 

 

And that's 1981-82 Topps hockey. This is one of the sets I got into when I returned to collecting back around 2013. I even bought a few wax packs and opened them to help me build it, so I'm extra happy now that it's complete. 

 

And when I say "complete", I mean all 198 cards—National, EAST, and WEST. They're currently in a binder, arranged thusly: National cards first, then 1-66 EAST, then 1-66 WEST.

 

 

What do you readers think about the way this set was arranged? Good idea? Bad idea? Fun for the kid collector? Too complicated for the kid collector?

 

Share your thoughts in the comment section, and thanks for reading, as always.

 

 

PS: I'll mention here that O-Pee-Chee did not go with the regional idea in 1981-82, and instead released a nice, normal 396-card set, which was standard size for the Canadian company at the time. I'm fairly close to completing it. Once I do, I'll post a set review here on the blog. It'll be fun to compare the two sets.

 

A Smorgasbord! 1987 M&Ms Star Lineup

From the 1970s through the 1990s, it seemed like you could find your favorite baseball stars on food product packaging everywhere you looked: supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, and beyond. This past year, in an effort to capture a little more nostalgia, I set a goal to expand my own collection of these "food-issue" cards. In this series I'll show the specific examples I've acquired, and share a little bit of history about the food or beverage sponsor as well. 

Previous entries can be found here.

 

  

It's the summer of 1987. July 13, to be exact. The major league all-star game is tomorrow in Oakland, and you can't wait to watch all the big names: Schmidt, Strawberry, Mattingly, Boggs, Winfield, Ozzie, Rickey. You've been finding wood-grained versions of all of them in packs of Topps cards this year.

 

And just when you thought it couldn't get more exciting, dad walks into the living room, gets your attention, and tosses a small bag in your direction. If the distinct packaging didn't give the product away as it sailed through the air, the rattling sound you hear when the bag makes impact with your hands sure does. 

You open your palms and look down to confirm. 

 

It's a pack of M&Ms!

You glance over at dad and exclaim, Yes!!

You give him your thanks, but instead of replying with any words, he walks over to you with some sort of cardboard panel in his hands. You notice he's looking down at it, and rotating it to a certain orientation. Then he hands it right over to you.

 

 

 

 

 

"Baseball cards?!" You ask in excited disbelief.

 

"Yep. They're issuing them with six-packs of M&Ms", dad replies in a matter-of-fact way.

 

"Oh, cool!" You look at the cards again, very happy with the Ripken/Brett combination.

 

"Wait, what?"

 

Something dad said about those M&Ms finally hit you. But you hear the screen door in the kitchen swing closed, which means dad has already headed out to the garage, and didn't hear your confused expression. Either that, or he chose not to.

 

So, there you sit, wondering if there might be five more packs of M&Ms somewhere in the house. And then you wonder if they'll be distributed to you at some point soon. 

 

But right now, you don't care. You got good marks on your final report card of the year, it's summer vacation, and you'll be eating your current pack of M&Ms and watching the all-star game with dad tomorrow. 

 

Life is good. 

Here's what the back of the cards look like.

The most interesting data point occurs on Cal Ripken's card. 

 

Since June 1982 played 6,947 consecutive innings

 

Consecutive games would have been the more standard factoid. But the innings streak is amazingly impressive as well. In fact, Mr. Ripken would continue that streak all the way through September 14th of 1987, ending up with 8,243 consecutive innings. Essentially, that's more than five years of playing every inning of every Orioles game.

 

As for M&Ms, they have quite a streak going as well, dating all the way back to the 1930s, when Forrest Mars Sr. noticed soldiers eating a similar candy-coated chocolate during the Spanish Civil War. The version Mars created (named after Forrest Mars and co-developer Bruce Murrie) were first available only to US soldiers during World War II. After the war, the candies were introduced to the public, and the rest is history.

 

There's also a baseball connection, as New York Yankee greats Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were affectionately known as the "M&M Boys". Although the players weren't officially endorsed by the candy maker, you'd have to imagine M&M sales increased during the early 1960s as a result of the nickname.

 

In more modern times, the brand has introduced a whole lot of flavors on top of the standard milk chocolate and peanut varieties. You can also create personalized gifts for any occasion now, with all sorts of messages and colors.

But let's get back to the summer of 1987 for a moment. I wasn't aware of the existence of a six-pack of M&Ms before I started research for this blog post. But they really did exist. Check out this full-page advertisement I found:

 

 

 

I can see that ad appearing in a comic book back then, or maybe an issue of Ranger Rick or Dynamite.

Now a couple of questions for you readers and collectors:

 

Do you have any of these M&Ms panels or individual cards in your collection?

 

What's your favorite flavor of M&M? I'm going with peanut.

 

Leave your answers in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

From the Favorites Box: Rick Schu, 1987 Topps #209

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.

 

 

There's so much 1980s goodness on this Rick Schu card, I don't even know where to start. 

 

 

You've got the powder blue uniforms. The maroon three-quarter sleeves. The flip-down shades under the brim of his cap. The mustache. The I-web glove with "SCHU" written in black marker along the thumb. The batting glove for some extra padding. The stirrup socks. And then you've got the dirt-stained pants and ripped knee.

 

Rick Schu was having himself a game. Just look at that posture. Despite the wear and tear, he's ready for the next pitch to be hit right at him.

 

And I can only guess that the rip in the knee was caused by another '80s staple: 

Astroturf.

 

Look at the background of the card one more time. It's hard to tell for sure if that really is turf behind the ankles of Mr. Schu, but based on the green wall with yellow top line, and the lighter green backdrop behind him, it might be Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Or maybe Three Rivers stadium in Pittsburgh. (Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life! might have a better idea. He seems to be quite the stadium expert.) Regardless, if either of those stadiums is the correct answer, we're talking about turf.

 

And that stuff would burn you up if you slid on it. But I know I can't be the only '80s kid out there who wanted to play on a turf field so badly anyway, even if you came home with a ripped knee in your new baseball pants and would feel the wrath of mom as a result. 

 

Watching teams like the Phillies, Cardinals, Royals, Pirates, Expos, or Astros was too cool. You'd see fleet-footed players like Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, or Andy Van Slyke slapping grounders through the hole, and then leading off first base—trail foot in the dirt, front foot on the turf—before trying to swipe second. Or other guys like Tim Raines and Willie Wilson smacking doubles into the gap and hustling around the bases, trying for an inside-the-park home run. Then on the defensive side, you had guys like Dave Concepcion and Ozzie Smith doing the intentional bounce-throw from deep shortstop over to first base. It was all so fun to watch.

 

And that brings us back to the hard-working, ever-ready Rick Schu.

 

He put up workmanlike numbers over a 9-year career, finishing up with 386 hits in 580 career games. His best season was 1985 in Philly, where he put up career highs in games (112), at-bats (416), hits (105), doubles (21), triples (4), and walks (38) with a .252/.318/.373 slash line. At third base that season, he finished with 86 putouts, 191 assists, 19 double plays, and a .933 fielding percentage. He also finished second in the NL with 20 errors committed. Ouch. 

 

But that image on his baseball card up there reveals that it wasn't for a lack of effort.

 

And for showing us you've always got to be ready out there, especially on those awesome turf fields of a time gone by, 1987 Topps #209 has a spot in my box of favorite cards.