Stuttgart Germany, here we come.....off the grid for a few weeks.

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks as we pack up the house and head over to Stuttgart, Germany.  Once we get settled, I'll hopefully have some cool new German cards to share along with some new sumo cards on their way over from Japan.  Cheers everyone and I'll catch you on the other side of the Atlantic!

Japanese BBM Baseball/Sumo Wrestling Crossover Cards

In Japan, sumo wrestling and baseball have been interlocked in a decades-long battle for popularity supremacy.  In the 1930s, sumo reigned king...after World War 2 it was baseball that carried the torch.  In the mid 1950s, sumo took hold until the 1960s where Oh and Nagashima took baseball to new heights.  In the 1970s, strong wresters like Kitanoumi, Takanohana, and Takamiyama popularized the sport overseas.  In the 1980s, Chiyonofuji was the man in sumo and seemed almost invincible...as well as sumo ratings.  In the 1990s, Nomo-fever brought about Japanese baseball to new fans overseas and was carried by Ichiro and Matsui.  BBM started making baseball sets first in the early 1990s followed 5 years later with sumo and is indicative of baseball's popularity strength.  The early 2000s were kind to sumo, but it's popularity died off until just a few years ago.  This battle will surely be an interesting one going forward.  Occasionally, there are cards that depict these two sports intertwined as is with the 2006 and 2008 Japanese BBM Baseball Ceremonial First Pitch Cards.  These four card feature sumo wrestlers throwing out the first pitch in April games during those season and thus were included in the 2nd series of the sets.  In 2006, Hakuho and Kyokushuzan had the honors...in 2008, Kotomitsuki graced card # 768 and newly minted Yokozuna Hakuho had a second go at this honor.  These are the only 4 cards I know that BBM has crossed over between these two sports.  I am hoping there will be more in the future.

2017 Japanese BBM B.League Basketball High Five Set

A few weeks ago, BBM released a boxed set of B.League basketball cards that included players from both the B1 and B2 levels of the league...the set is called High Five.  Because of the inclusion of the B2 teams we now get cards from teams such as the Fukushima Firebirds, Iwate Big Bulls, Cyberdyne Ibaraki Robots, and Earth Friends Tokyo Z.  There are 54 cards in the base set and 2 signature cards included in each boxed set.  The big chase is the autograph cards, though.  I was pretty impressed opening up the box and seeing the cards for the first time.  They are really cool with the silver foil highlights. 

All 56 cards come in a cardboard box as seen above and wrapped in a sturdy cellophane band.  Somehow, though, my set moved around and card number #1 got dinged on the left corners.  The backs feature some basic facts and a full-body posed picture.  I really like the looks of these cards.  I got autos of Narito Namizato from the Shiga Lakestars and Shingo Utsumi from the Kyoto Hannaryz.....both numbered to /105  Some scans of the cards are below...but the silver foil does not show up in the scans unfortunately.  I bought a few sets and will keep them sealed except for this one.  The sets can still be purchased online so they must have made plenty of them to meet the expected demand.

They are a little spendy and Niki at Rakuten still has them for sale at around US$41 without shipping.  I don't chase autographs so am happy with this base set...I am really hoping we see more B.League sets at the beginning of next season toward the end of this year.