This close-up batting portrait shows Japanese veteran Kyosuke Sasaki in the colorful, Expos-like uniform for one of Osaka's two teams of that era, the Kintentsu Buffaloes. That star-crossed franchise later merged with Orix BlueWave, starting play as Orix Buffaloes in 2005. (If the BlueWave name sounds familiar, it's best known in America as Ichiro's pre-MLB team.)
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| 1975-76 Calbee (JC4) #558 |
Sasaki logged a decade with these Buffaloes and wore #5, hence its card number. The card back talks about his team's opportunities and personal record, including what might be a jab at year-to-year batting inconsistency. He straightened things out with three straight .300+ campaigns (1978-80) and retired after 1981, moving into new roles as coach and manager. The rest of his card's a general invitation for collectors to mail in names of their favorite players, with a promise Calbee would publish popular choices later that year.
The company produced a modest 48 cards for this set and four different players share #5, all guys who wore that uniform number for their squads. Give the TCDB checklist's paucity of gallery images, I assume 1979's somewhat harder to find than other 1970s Calbee sets.
- Adrian Garrett (Hiroshima Toyo Carp)
- Yasunori Ishima (Chunichi Dragons)
- Kyosuke Sasaki (Kintetsu Buffaloes)
- Fujio Sumi (Yakult Swallows)
Cards for Kyosuke Sasaki include the 1979 TCMA Japanese Pro Baseball set (set profile) and what looks like an early 1970s Buffaloes team issue.
Value: This Calbee card cost $3.65 on eBay, about what I expect for overseas singles of lesser-known guys. The priciest Buffaloes player from any year might be Hideo Nomo, ace of their staff prior to his move to LA in 1995, and 1979's top Calbee card is likely slugger Sadaharu Oh.
Fakes/reprints: Sadaharu Oh might be 1979's one player with counterfeit risk. Type collectors should stick to someone lower-profile or work with a dealer who knows Japanese issues well.
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