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In 1965, the Yomiuri Giants,
under the direction of former batting star Tetsuharu
Kawakami, won the first of nine straight Japan Series
championships. The Giants were led by Shigeo Nagashima and
Sadaharu Oh, the two best players in the history of Japanese
baseball. Batting in the third and fourth spots, the duo,
known as the ON Canon, combined for eight MVP Awards, six
batting titles, nine homerun crowns, and nine RBI titles
during this nine year run.
Although this streak is one
of the most famous accomplishments in Japanese baseball
history, few baseball cards were issued during this period.
The only major set produced during this time was the
valuable Kabaya Leaf set issued in 1967. This set of 105
cards included only players from the Giants, Dragons,
Tigers, Flyers, Hawks and Lions. These cards were imported
to the United States by Mel Bailey and sold through baseball
card newsletters. As a result, although the set is rare,
they are more common in the States than in Japan. Because
the importer was not able to purchase equal amounts of each
card in the set, there are four very rare and an additional
five rare cards. The set includes two styles of card
fronts: one has a circular picture - similar to the 1959
Topps set, while the other contains a square picture.
The only other known sets
dating to this period were magazine inserts, regional team
issues and playing cards. Examples of most of these smaller
sets are rare.
Cards
from 1965-72
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Gene Bacque
1967 Kabaya-Leaf |
Hideki Watanabe
1967 Kabaya-Leaf |
Sadaharu Oh
1967 Kabaya-Leaf |
Yoshinori Hirose
1967 Kabaya-Leaf |
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Tetsuya Yoneda
ca.1968 Trump Card |
Bromide taba
ca. 1972 |
Yomiuri Giants magazine insert
ca.1967-8 |
Sadaharu Oh
1968 Jintan Gun Giants Trump |
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