The 2017 Kochi Fighting Dogs Team Set, and Manny Being Manny

Earlier this month, I had my summer vacation. When all was said and done, I had stops in eight prefectures (kind of like counties or states here) over seven days. I'll relay a bit more of my trip eventually, but just to give you an idea, I went to four amusement parks, seven card shops, a decent number of sightseeing spots, and three Shikoku Island League Plus baseball games.

One of those games included the Fighting Dogs, and unlike the other three teams in the league, they had a merchandising presence at the game, and they have a team card set for this year.

The set doesn't come cheap - 3000 yen (about $30). But they had random packs of 10 cards for $5, which means that, with luck, you could get the entire set for less ($15, even). I only needed one pack, though!

 Here's the design. The fronts are very minor-leaguey, as I guess one would expect from an independent team. The backs are black and white and recycle the front photo. There are 30 cards in the set; the card number is in the lower-right on the back.

 Photography is pretty standard, but thankfully it is full of action shots.

 They follow the standard BBM style of pitchers pitching and batters batting.

 The images are relatively sharp. I think every game plays around sunset or before, so they have plenty of daylight to take photos.

 Fielder fielding! But the best is yet to come:

Yep, the Manny Ramirez, playing in Japan, for an indy-league team. But then again, he is in his 40s. Manny didn't play in the game I attended, but he was there and visible. As I was wandering around before the game, I took a glance in the Dogs dugout and saw him relaxing on the bench. I realized who he was pretty quickly and was like, "Oh, hey!" and he gave me a little nod. He is definitely supportive of his teammates, cheering them on in the dugout and high-fiving players as they came back from the field. Actually, that little experience has turned me into a Manny fan, and I'll be building a little Manny collection eventually. I guess I've already started with this card!