1993 Sumo Wrestling POGs - Konishiki & Musashimaru

A little over a year ago I stumbled upon some POGs from 1993 that depicted the famous Hawaiian sumo wrestlers Musashimaru, Akebono, and Konishiki.  Their popularity coincided with the American POG craze of the mid-1990s and were subsequently captured on several sets.  I was recently able to pick this POG set up from a friend that features then Ozeki Konishiki and then-Sekiwake Musashimaru with the latter going on to attain sumo's highest rank, Yokozuna.  Scans don't do the images justice, but the pictures are a combination of blue and gold foil.  For Musashimaru's POGs they say "Ring Champ" and "Fiamalu Penitani - Waianae's Pride Hawaii, 1993".  For Konishiki's POGs they say "Ambassador of Sumo" and "Salevaa Atisanoe - Nana Kuli's Son Hawaii, 1993".  Both Waianae and NanaKuli are areas in Hawaii.  The backs say these POGs were printed in Hong Kong as well as lists a telephone number "955-7109" although I haven't been able to determine what business/person this phone number is associated with after doing a quick Google search.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

National Rail Safety Week - Be Safe Out There!

This week is National Rail Safety Week, a week-long awareness campaign supported by the Operation Lifesaver, Inc. non-profit.  This week is important as it raises awareness of the need for rail safety education and how to keep save near highway-railroad crossings.  Last year there were 2,216 highway-railroad crossing collisions with hundreds of deaths across the country.  As part of the awareness campaigns of past, OLI issued this 36-card set in 1993 with locomotives from the major companies and catchy slogans on the back on how to stay safe around railroad tracks.  In the early 1990's anything and everything was printed on trading cards and this set was no exception.  This "Limited Edition" set is a must have for rail fans like myself.  Remember:

- Railroad tracks are meant for trains, not walking laines.  Look, Listen and Live!

- Trains and games don't go together.  Find a safer place to play.

- It only takes your car about 200 fee to stop at 55 mph.  A train takes 8000 feet to stop.

- When you approach a highway-rail grade crossing turn down your radio so you can hear the train whistle.

Probably the most famous train-track movies out there has to be Stand By Me

When Sumo Wrestling Came to Hawaii in 1993 - Akebono, Konishiki, Musashimaru

In the summer time between tournaments, rikishi go on traveling tours around the country (and around the world) to give fans a chance to interact with the wrestlers and to promote the sport.  It has been a while since they have come to America.  In fact, the last time they were here was in 2009 in LA.  However, once upon a time when Hawaiian wrestlers were dominate in the sport, they went to Hawaii for a special two-day tournament.  In June of 1993, dozens of wrestlers descended upon the Hawaiian Islands to give the fans a true taste of this ancient sport.  And since Yokozuna Akebono, Ozeki Konishiki, and Sekiwake Musashimaru were at the top of the sport, this caused slight hysteria across the islands.  Spoiler alert, according to the July 1993 edition of Sumo World, Sekiwake Musashimaru was the tournament winner as described in the attached article.  Coincidently, the massive POG craze was going on at this time as well and this piece of history was captured on a set of POGs.  I got out of cards right when the POG craze hit so I missed getting absorbed in the collecting frenzy and missed collecting some great sets.  Luckily I was able to recently pick this up and will be cataloguing in future editions of my book.

These three rikishi were so famous that it inspired the famous Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwa'ole (Of the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" fame) to write a song about them called "Sumotori".

Did anyone else get caught up on the POG craze?

1990s Japanese BBM Baseball Pack "Rips"

Back in the day, before sumo wrestling cards took over, I was a big baseball card collector.  I was fortunately to work at a card store for most of my high school years to fuel my passion, but the combination of the 1994 strike, going to college, and the overwhelming number of baseball sets being produced killed my collecting mojo during the late 1990s.  However, before it was totally dead I had some of my Japanese friends pick up some Japanese baseball card packs for me during my freshman year of college.  This weekend, when I was tidying up the basement, I came across the packs.  Before anyone gets too excited they were already opened, but I apparently only cut off the top of the pack and then slid the cards back in after I was done looking at them....typical me of the era.  So 20 years later, here I am again getting ready to open/reopen them and see what lies within.  All the cards appear to be in the 6 different packs so it's really like I never even opened them....my memory of what lies within long ago faded.  I'm a true amateur when it comes to Japanese Baseball stars so all I'll really recognize is Nomo, Ichiro, and Matsui.  I'm using Engel's book as a guide to see how I fared.  The packs are as follows: 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992 Series 1, 1992 Series 2, and 1991.  Wish me luck.

Up first is the 1995 pack.  Come on Ichiro!!!!  It says there are 10 cards inside and cost 200円.

No Ichiro and the best card it looks like is #349 of Kazuhiko Ishimine.  I do like the hologram on the back...reminds me of Upper Deck!

Here is what I got:

#638 - Tomohiro Kuroki
#550 - Shinichiro Minami
#461 - Shinjiro Hiyama
#382 - Takayuki Murakami
#349 - Kazuhiko Ishimine
#272 - Masashi Arikura
#212 - Katsuhiko Yamada
#176 - Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (Gold Facsimile Auto)
#152 - Hiroo Ishii
#92 - Hiroyuki Maehara

Alright, 1994 here we go.  Looks like Matsui and Ichiro are the ones to get here.  Engel also states that cards #1-42 are scarce.  10 cards in this pack as well No whammies!

Okay, another so-so pack.  Card #553 looks to be my best card "Power Aplenty" (Bryant and Winters)

Here is what I got:

#553 - "Power Aplenty" Bryant and Winters
#533 - Shintaro Yoshitake
#505 - Jun Yamada
#477 - Yusuke Torigoe
#449 - Chihiro Hamana
#421 - Masao Yanada
#393 - Yoshinori Ueda
#365 - Norio Tanabe
#337 - Kiyoyuki Nagashima
#309 - Yasuaki Taihoh

Next up.  1993.  200円 for 10 cards.  Hoping for an Ichiro, Matsui or Nomo.

Bam!  Hit the #423 Matsui!

Here is what I got:

#498 - Checklist
#473 - "Combination Card" Furuta and Okabayashi
#448 - Takahiro Ikeyama
#423 - Hideki Matsui
#398 - Akihito Kondoh
#373 - Tadaharu Sakai
#348 - Norihiro Akimura
#323 - Terumitsu Kumano
#298 - Kenji Tomashino
#273 - Shinichi Igarashi

Let's roll with 1992 Series 1.  200円 for 10 glorious cards.  I'd love to pull a Nomo here.

Nothing at all to report in this one.

#232 - Takahiro Konno
#219 - Yoshihiko Takahashi
#182 - Kenji Horie
#157 - Kenji Furukubo
#132 - Satoshi Nakajima
#107 - Hiroshima Municipal Stadium
#82 - Hiroshi Yagi
#57 - Takahiro Ikeyama
#44 - Hiroaki Hirota
#7 - Tomio Watanabe

1992 Series 2.  Hopefully I get at least a semi-star!

Another blah pack.  1992 was not kind to me at all here.

#497 - Checklist
#472 - Yasuo Nagaike
#447 - Hiroshi Motohigashi
#422 - Kohji Ohtsuka
#379 - Atsunori Itoh
#372 - Shinichi Igarashi
#347 - Norihito Yamashita
#322 - Shinji Sasaoka
#297 - Yoichi Okabayashi
#272 - Masahiro Takahashi

Alright, last pack.  1991....Inaugural year for BBM baseball cards.  Let's see what we get...would love a Nomo!

Not bad it seems.  I did get an Oh card...and for some reason this pack has 3 American players in it.

Here is what I ended up with:

#384 - Tetsuya Iida
#344 - Shinichi Murakami
#304 - Tom O'Malley
#264 - Koji Maeda
#223 - Sadaharu Oh
#183 - Shinichi Igarashi
#143 - Koji Takagi
#103 - Kiyoki Nakanishi
#63 - Johnny Ray
#24 - Jim Paciorek

Well that was definitely fun and some great looking cards these early BBM releases are!  A great way to spend an hour on a Saturday.