Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Favorite Card of 2016

Fuji over at The Chronicles of Fuji pointed me to a contest P-Town Tom was running through 9 January 2017.  The basic premise is to post your favorite card of 2016 and you are entered into a contest to win a 2017 Topps S1 blaster.  I have too many sumo cards to choose from, but one "other" card that I do consider to be one of my favorite is this 2016 BBM Masterpiece of Sunao Takizawa who is the captain of the Japanese NEC Green Hornets rugby team.



There are three reasons this card is my favorite:

1. Takizawa-san's legs are bigger than my waist...look at those things.  Plus, his hair is flying up because he is lowering his head to ruin someone's day.  This is one of the most menacing cards I have ever seen.

2. I owned exactly one autographed card before this one.  It is a Laura Prepon 2015 Panini Americana that I picked up cheap at the Chantilly Card Show.  Other than that, this is it (Actually, this card is on its way over from Japan, but this is the auction photo of it).  Takizawa-san's signature is a really beauty and when I saw this card, I knew I needed to have it.

3. This card would not have been possible without the help of Raz over at The Raz Card Blog.  I shot him a small care package a few weeks ago and he unexpectedly dropped a little extra in my PayPal account to say thanks.  A huge gesture and this card represents the great folks I have met over the past year of blogging.  Thanks Raz!

Thanks to P-Town Tom as well for running your contest.  Cheers everyone!

7 comments:

  1. I knew a rugby player who would show off by wrapping a belt around a volleyball, then sliding the belt off of the volleyball and onto his leg to show that they were the same size. He also liked to show off the scars on his head from opposing players' cleats. He was pretty crazy.

    Autographs are so commonplace today that it's weird to think of a collection that just contains two of them. I've probably got 25 autographs just on my desk right now.

    I appreciate the trade package. Sorry my return on the trade was kind of uninspired. I'm glad you were able to turn it into something cool.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is crazy! All the guys that I have seen are really big. Yeah, I never did get into autographs and will likely pick up a few more here and there. Thanks again. I should be getting the package in a week or so so will get your card out as soon as I can. I'm waiting for a few more auctions to arrive at Buyee before I consolidate and ship over here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's an awesome action shot! That guy is a beast. The Seahawks should call sign him for the playoffs. And for being your 2nd autograph... it sure is amazing. Love the time and care some of these Japanese athletes put into their signature.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This one is pretty neat...yeah, I watch rugby and am always amazed with the players. On a somewhat slight tangent, there was a tv show that showed a US football player going to practice sumo and he got his butt kicked. Not that he couldn't do it, but the flexibility of the sumo wrestlers, the ability to work the center of gravity of their bodies, and the speed were different than what American football players practice. Likewise, I am sure sumo wrestlers would have a hard time in American football at the beginning.

      Delete
    2. I'm not surprised. I've seen at least one documentary showing the level of fitness where sumo wrestlers are at.

      As for rugby players... last year the 49ers had a famous rugby guy on their roster. Forgot his name though.

      Delete
  4. Wow. Just. Wow. Fantastic card, thanks for entering!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for holding your contest and thanks to Fuji for pointing me to your blog.

      Delete