Yesterday, I showed off a nice piece of art I found at the local recycle shop. But that's not all that I've bought there. I also came away with some much smaller souvenirs: ones that I had never seen before.
First, let's start off with some mini figurines. These little guys I have seen before, and I have a couple of the tiny ones. Now I have a few more. The Clemens is a 2005 Corinthian mini figure, while the rest are SportsClix kind of things. (I wish I had gotten a better picture or scan of that pamphlet.) I believe those were found in gacha-gacha vending machines, or they could have been sold in little boxes. I considered for a brief second trying to put the set together; I could have come close just with the selection at the shop. But I wisely decided against it.
The little guys are also made by Corinthian, by the way, and in their original little bags. Left to right, Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, and Randy Johnson.
Next, three little baseballs. One side shows a player's name and jersey number (Mike Piazza, Chipper Jones, and Sammy Sosa).
The other has the player's team logo. Each ball has a little strap attached so you can put it on a phone or phone case, or a bag.
These straps are little plastic baseball caps. They don't have any players, but the detail is amazing given their size. Each one is about the size of a piece of popcorn (as are the baseballs above).
And here are some tiny jerseys with straps. And now you can probably tell where these came from. The fronts of the jerseys are designed to look like teams' home or away jerseys.
Backs continue the design, along with a player's name and jersey number. Ichiro was wearing #51 for the Mariners back in the mid 2000s, while Bernie Williams was Yankees #51. But I got two Chipper Jones jerseys, both home and away! And a Pepsiman jersey.
These gloves are tiny, and have straps as well. I have Ichiro, Chipper Jones, and Mike Piazza.
Finally, these are little metal plates that look similar to baseball cards, but also have straps to attach to your phone or bag.
Despite being really small, the backs include a team logo, photo, and lots of text. As you can see if you enlarge the photo, these were issued in 2004 by Pepsi. My guess is everything other than the Corinthian mini-figures were included free with various Pepsi products.
Boy do I miss those days, when I could walk into a supermarket or convenience store and find free toys hanging from the necks of soda bottles. I see some free items, but now they are nicer-quality and require bigger purchases. And they aren't related to baseball.
Last weekend, I took an overnight trip down to Nagoya to visit my favorite amusement park. I say weekend, though I really visited Nagashima Spaland on Monday, since my days off are Sunday and Monday. It was a really good day: the weather was warm and crowds were light.
Nagashima has all kinds of great rides, and if I lived in Nagoya, I would probably try to visit every week. One of their coasters, Steel Dragon 2000, still holds the record for the longest in the world. It's 97 meters tall, has a 93.5 meter first drop, reaches speeds of 153 km/h, with a nearly 2.5 km-long track. All four of those were records when it was built. It used to have ugly, bulky, uncomfortable trains that looked like this:
After discovering that Do-dodonpa coaster toy, I checked a little online and found this toy. Choro-Coaster is the name it's given, though there was a whole line of Choro vehicles. It was made by Takara, who was also involved in the Do-dodonpa car. This one isn't of as high quality as the Tomica vehicle, but it is 20 years old.
As far as I can tell, this is the only other coaster toy car issued in Japan. I've seen yellow and blue versions, so I'll probably get a blue version to complete the set. And who knows, maybe I'll discover other coaster toys here!
As I mentioned, this is the old train style. The ride got new trains several years ago which are much smoother and more comfortable.
And this trip to Nagoya wasn't just about coasters. I visited two card shops and a card show on Sunday! Once I get everything scanned, I can start sharing my haul.
A couple years ago, I went through all of the accumulated stuff from my life here in Japan, and made some decisions about what I wanted to keep versus what I didn't really want to keep. Some of it was worthless and is now in a landfill or properly recycled, while other things are in boxes waiting to be sold in some way.
Don't worry, I kept most of the baseball stuff, at least. And last year, while I was cooped up in my tiny apartment, I went back through the boxes to photograph and catalog everything I kept. While organizing and inventorying the baseball souvenirs, I verified that I had at least one, but not too many, souvenirs from each NPB team. And that got me thinking: what if I had one souvenir for every defunct NPB team as well? That includes a few teams that have disappeared, but also teams which have changed their names.
If my research and memory is correct, this is a list of all NPB team names which no longer exist:
Pirates (1950)
Clippers (1950)
Robins (1950-1954)
Whales (1955-1977)
Unions (1954-1957)
Stars (1950-1956)
Flyers (1950-1973)
Orions (1950-1977)
Braves (1950-1990)
BlueWave (1950-2004)
Somewhere along the line I picked up a BlueWave souvenir. They aren't that uncommon - the team existed less than 20 years ago and was the home of Ichiro before he moved to Seattle.
Last month, I finally got a Braves souvenir.
The easiest thing to find for the Hankyu Braves, other than cards, are hats. But most sellers have been asking more than I want to pay. This only cost me about 1000 yen ($10)! It's big enough to fit on a shelf but not too big to dominate it. I believe this is vintage.
Oh, you noticed a signature. I'm pretty sure this is Yutaka Fukumoto, the Japanese Rickey Henderson. Or should I say, Rickey Henderson is the American Yutaka Fukumoto. Fukumoto broke Brock's career steals record before Henderson, and held the single-season stolen base record with 106 before Henderson broke that record. Fukumoto got 2543 hits and 1065 stolen bases in his career, and is a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
I didn't bid on it because Fukumoto signed it, but if this is authentic (I have no reason to believe otherwise) it's a great addition to my collection and my first Japanese Hall of Famer autograph. (Apparently, the seller's kid got the hat signed at Nishinomiya Stadium.)
I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find decent souvenirs eventually for the Orions, Flyers, and Whales. But the remaining teams only existed in the 1950s, so I might turn to replicas or other modern souvenirs.
And as a bonus, these bromide photo cards of Fukumoto were included with the hat:
I'm taking a stab in the dark here guessing they were probably sold at the stadium.
My tastes are eclectic. I could write a couple 500-word essays worth of background to tell you all about it, but I'll spare you the pain. But one thing I do like in addition to card collecting is riding roller coasters.
I've ridden 652 coasters in 172 parks across 13 countries. 596 of those "count" as coasters, with the rest being powered, mountain, water, or undefined coasters. At least 147 of those are no longer operating. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, there's an app for that. There's no way I'm keeping up with all that data.)
I've amassed a decent collection of theme park souvenirs: shot glasses, keychains, magnets, and so on. But until now, I never had my own coaster train.
Okay, so it's a toy. Tomica is the Japanese equivalent to Hot Wheels, and may be even higher quality. They generally make regular cars, trucks, and buses, but they do have some unique items in their product line. One of those is item 123, the Fujikyu Highland Do-Dodonpa coaster.
Do-Dodonpa is one of the signature rides at Fujikyu, which is considered by many to be the best amusement park in Japan.
Side note: Disneyland or DisneySea is considered to be the best theme park in Japan, but Fujikyu is considered to be the best amusement park due to its selection of unique thrill rides. Think of it like a Japanese Cedar Point. Except I believe Nagashima Spaland is a much better park than Fujikyu; Fujikyu has some amazing rides but Nagashima Spaland has a better overall experience.
The detail is pretty good. I wish the people weren't all the same color as the seats. Most of the paint is already applied, but the box came with a set of tiny stickers to put on the trains where the steps and the top next to the seats are. I used a pair of tweezers and some other random nail tool to help me apply them properly.
The train can roll on the very short piece of track or be taken off completely. Each car in the train can spin completely independently of the other cars. And you can't see it in the picture, but the bottom of the train has brake fins and this track piece has brakes. It's a nice touch. In case you're wondering, the bottom wheels spin, though the top and side wheels do not.
I would like a real piece of a coaster someday. Owning a coaster car is probably unlikely, but a piece of track (replaced, of course) or an old wheel would be neat. I have a piece of the Golden Gate Bridge, after all, it can't be too tough to get a roller coaster piece, can it?
I've been thinking a lot about stuff. Not "I have issues" stuff, but "things" stuff. "Objects" stuff. "Possessions" stuff. I have a lot of stuff.
Not safe for work. You've been warned.
I've got stuff all over the world. Stuff in storage, stuff at my mom's, stuff at home, stuff in this hotel room, stuff at work. Stuff in storage at COMC. Stuff in the mail. My cousin has a little of my stuff; I gave her a bunch of baseball cards to do some crafty thing for me as a gift ten years ago or so... where is that gift, anyway?
I've been thinking a lot about that stuff. Mainly, what I really want to do with it. I think many of my travel souvenirs will eventually get tossed. Lots of worthless trinkets to commemorate my visit to rinky-dink museums in Middle-of-Nowheresville, USA. Last year, when I went to China, I brought back one travel souvenir. I could have bought silk pajamas or lots of Chinese china or keychains or pens or books or maps. But I got just one nice souvenir.
And that's how I've been doing things lately. So clearing out the old worthless things will be a goal. Even when I went to Chicago about ten years ago, among all the other trinkets, I bought one nicer "conversation piece". I can keep that. Get rid of the lapel pins.
I don't want to get rid of my piece of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not valuable, and it's not that big, but it is a very sentimental object. I can toss the cable car replica toy and mini Golden Gate Bridge model from the souvenir shop and fake Alcatraz handcuffs. The piece of the bridge itself reminds me of so many adventures with my grandmother, of trying to cross it on its 50th anniversary, of exploring the city and heading across it on vacation and feeding the birds and just being in San Francisco.
But what about my trip to New York City? Vietnam? Korea? What should I keep? What do I even have from those places? Do I need to keep anything to remember having been there? Should I keep anything from there, if I don't remember buying it in the first place?
Should I refocus my adventures on one specific type of souvenir? Shot glasses aren't really a thing out here, but in the States, getting one shot glass from every state I've visited would be affordable and manageable in size. Easy to display, too: a couple wall racks would fill it up. But how meaningful are shot glasses to my life?
As I've thought about what to keep and what to get rid of, two things come to mind as no-brainers: amusement parks and baseball. I've made it a point to (try to) get one branded souvenir from every theme park I've visited. Japanese parks don't have much to go on, but I get what I can.
And I got rid of a bunch of my baseball souvenirs twice: once around 1998 when I thought I was out of collecting for good (I "lost" all my game-used balls and a bunch of other souvenirs then), and once in 2003 when I realized my collecting goals were way out of hand. Both purges were, in hindsight, a bad idea.
All of this comes to mind because my apartment is, as Carlin said, a place to keep my stuff. If I do consolidate everything I own again - moving back to the States is the most likely reason this would happen - what would I do with it? My apartment was a museum of nothingness; I'd be embarrassed to have my domicile arranged as such again. And if I do remain in Japan, I guess I need to think about what to do with all that stuff in the US.
Yet, I continue to get more stuff. At least these are baseball-related, and nearly card-related.
First is this 2000 Yomiuri Giants Memorial Medal Collection. I've talked about coin cards recently, but these are just coins. This was issued to commemorate the Giants winning the championship in 2000, and features coins from 12 of the top members of the 2000 team.
It is in a folder style, but I only scanned the front and one inside. The other side has an image of the team, while the back is essentially blank.
I have to shrink this image size down to fit it on the site, but here is another medal collection of 12 players. These are in silver instead of gold and don't highlight a specific season, but I would guess that they are from around the same time. This, too, is a folder, with a nearly-blank back and photos on the inside front cover.
This is the Giants 2000 "Millennium" Member Card Set. I bet you figured that out on your own, as long as you can see the image above. It's a nice black folder. It's actually double-folded, so there are a total of eight panels. Four of them have cards tucked into little tabs.
All the cards are full-bleed with facsimile signatures.
The center inside has the best player for the team at each position; essentially it's the opening day roster plus the manager. The very back is basically blank, while the other two panels don't have anything really worth mentioning.
I picked these all up for a price too good to miss... which was pretty cheap. What will I do with this stuff? Well, like my other stuff in Japan, it just goes into a box. Yep, I have almost nothing on display in my apartment in Funabashi. Everything's in a box, waiting for a final home where it can be displayed and gather dust like it was meant to. But until then...
Recently, a reader posted a comment asking how I display my collection. I thought that was a great question, so I decided to turn it into a post of its own!
But, bad news: I can't and don't display my collection. Long story short: my collection is split between three places, none of which are good for displaying and enjoying. Make that four: I have a lot of cards in storage at COMC waiting for shipment. The cards that I do have at home are just stored in boxes, and the other souvenirs are in other boxes. Japanese apartments just aren't suited to displaying so many collectibles. I don't want to end up like this:
But I do have a few pictures from my collection displays in the past. Let's have a look!
All of these pictures are from my apartment in Georgia. I don't live there anymore, and everything you see is in boxes.
These two shots will give you an idea of all the (fairly worthless) souvenirs I had. The left picture shows many of my team-related souvenirs. For the most part, each team had its own shelf. Some teams didn't have much; you can see the Orioles and Angels sharing a shelf above the Pirates Wheaties box. I have gathered even more stuff since these photos.
My Starting Lineups are stacked across the top, and again I now have more. The right-hand photo shows my card souvenirs, with packaging and oddball inserts . And all of those bats leaning against the shelves are game-used. Most are from minor league games, though I might have one MLB gamer.
Souvenirs that don't fit in with a certain team went on this bookcase. All of my baseball books in 2010 were on this shelf, I think, though I believe I have more that just didn't get photographed. On the left is a CD/DVD holder with my small collection of DVDs and my movie memorabilia.
To the right is a rack with many of my sets other than base sets. Diamond Kings sets are visible on the top, several of Topps' throwback sets on the shelf below. The third shelf has my other collections, with the bottom shelf holding non-baseball sets. Peaking over the top of the binders is just a small sampling of my autographed photos of movie and TV stars I've met.
The binder rack is seen toward the back of this photo, so this is continuing down. The plastic shelving is full of boxes. Large sets are on the middle two shelves with some smaller sets fit in wherever they could be. My type collection is on the bottom shelf. This area is full of my non-baseball sports souvenirs. You can see my love of gymnastics and figure skating here; those photos are all autographed. The cabinet with the lock on it held loose cards to be put away, supplies, and various other sets that had no home.
On the other side are more shelving units. Another large plastic unit holds another 20 or so shoeboxes packed with my non-sport sets. One plastic unit has my movie and science books. And another bookcase is covered with my concert and movie memorabilia.
I have a lot of Giants, A's, and Braves souvenirs. The Giants got the top three shelves here and the A's got two. The Braves had their own shelving unit.
I mentioned movie souvenirs a few times. There's a rack sitting just to the left of the bookcase covered in more autographed photos. I used the rack so I could move it and get to the shelves, or spin it around to "rotate" my collection.
Some of my larger things - a couple clocks, a poster, uncut sheets, and a few Nolan Ryan flats. You can see my Nolan Ryan bust from Upper Deck Portraits. A smaller bookcase held my Nolan Ryan and Tony Gwynn stuff, but it was pretty lacking.
Looking at these photos now, it's amazing how much space I had and used to display my souvenirs. I will mention that the shelving mostly came from Ikea - the bookcases were under $20 each. I had a big loft apartment, so there was plenty of room to spread my collection out.
As I mentioned, my collection is all in boxes now. But I would love to have another massive man cave kind of like this again!
Yes, it's been a long time. It's been two weeks since my last post, again not due to a lack of interest or psoting material, but due to a lack of time and other projects. Actually, I was getting sick as I was writing my last post, and that cold knocked me out for several days. I'm still trying to recover, stuck around 95%. This past week, I've been working on a project that has nothing to do with baseball, so I won't bore you with the details. I finally finished that a couple hours ago.
Meanwhile, I've picked up some great stuff off Yahoo Japan Auctions and new cards at the shops, so you'll see those soon.
But first, today.
Today starts with tomorrow, for tomorrow, I will finally go to Tokyo Disneyland for the first time. Yes, I've lived in Japan for five years, and have not been to TDR (Tokyo Disney Resort). Yes, I'm a theme park junky and a Disney fan, and have not been to TDR. Yes, I went to Hong Kong Disneyland a couple years ago, but have not yet been to TDR.
The real reason for that is crowds. The Tokyo park is probably the most consistently crowded. Lots of people visit the park at least once a year, and many have annual passes - which run about $500 each. Seriously, don't go to TDR on the weekend - wait times are consistently in the hours. Pass holders will go with friends and chat and ride one or two rides in a day, watch a show, and grab some food.
So I've been waiting for a good weekday, and between weather, money, and energy, there just hasn't been a good opportunity. But over the past few months, I've worked a shifted schedule where I have Mondays and Tuesdays off, and Tuesdays are much better days to visit. June is a good month, too, though even on a Monday - a school day Monday - Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain had over two hour waits this afternoon.
I'm going tomorrow, a Tuesday. Crowds should be lighter, but I'm still planning on long lines for the popular attractions. So I planned out my day - I made an itinerary to help me get the most important attractions as quickly as possible in the morning. People in Japan start their day early, too - the park opens at 8 AM every day and admission lines get long well before that. You can buy tickets at the park in the morning, but that's another line to wait in. You can buy tickets at convenience stores, but it looks like they need to be exchanged for regular tickets before going into the park. And you can buy online, but they need to be printed - I could do that but printed tickets wear out pretty fast.
But then there's the Disney Store. And there's a Disney Store about a 30-minute walk from here. Not having left my apartment and the one-block surrounding area (I love that I can walk to a grocery store and 24-hour convenience store both in 5 minutes) I figured it'd be a great way to get some exercise.
Not only could I get my Disney ticket for tomorrow, but on the way home I could stop at the two secondhand shops to browse around. And I found this at the first:
Yeah, that's a Japan jersey. It's not an "authentic" jersey - it's like the fan jerseys worn at NPB games. That said, the design is similar to one of the jerseys the national team has worn. And it fits - not terribly well (I need to lose my Homer Simpson stomach) but I'm glad it's wearable.
That shop has a good stock of Marines and Giants fan jerseys, and occasionally other jerseys too. I've also found a few baseball souvenirs there but the good stuff is overpriced. I didn't strike out at the second shop, but you'll have to wait to see that til later.
Those who are tackling a want list when it comes to baseball souvenirs might want to look elsewhere, but for window shoppers and impulse buyers, Akihabara's Electric Town district can produce some decent finds.
In addition to very occasional baseball cards, I sometimes find other souvenirs, like this box I picked up from Hobby Off, located between Yodobashi Camera and the JR train station.
If you read the title of this post, you already know what's inside. Hiroki Kokubo was one of those local favorites that are quite big here in Japan. That isn't to say he wasn't good. The box cover there gives his career stats: 2000+ hits and 400+ home runs, both of which are considered top milestones for sluggers in the NPB. (Remember, NPB has a shorter season than MLB, so it's a lot harder to reach the 3000 hit/500 home run marks.)
Kokubo got his start with the Hawks back when they were owned by Daiei. He was basically given to the Yomiuri Giants after the 2003 season, where he played for three years before re-signing with the Hawks in 2007. Since 2013 he has been the manager of the Japan National Team.
The pin set reflects the three jerseys he wore - first with the Daiei Hawks, then Yomiuri Giants, and finally the Softbank Hawks. One other pin has the Hiroki Kokubo logo. Yes, he has a logo.
The back of the pin box just has basic retail information, including the original price - 3500 yen (about $35). I paid about ten percent of that, which especially in Japan is a bargain!
I'm not sure what you can consider unique, really, but this was an awesome find for me.
Over the New Year holidays, I mainly spent my free time wandering around various neighborhoods in Tokyo. One day, I came across a street festival of some kind with dozens of booths set up selling food and crafts. A few booths were flea-market style, with used things, and one particular booth had a bunch of bags.
I wasn't really looking for a new bag. I'm happy with my shoulder bag for my day-to-day comings and goings, and I have good backpacks and suitcases for travel. I even have some super-condensable nylon bags for shopping.
But when I walked past the booth and took a glance, the logo on this bag caught my eye. The bag itself is a nice heavy canvas which I'm sure can withstand a good bit of use. I'm not going shopping with it, though, because it serves as my first souvenir from an independent team in Japan.
The Golden Golds got their start in 2005, if you couldn't figure that out from the design on the bag. The team is still playing over 10 years later. Their biggest claim to fame is female player-manager Ayumi Kataoka, One of my hopes this year is to see some minor league (ni-gun) and independent league games, so if I'm lucky I'll see Ayumi heading up the Ibaraki nine this summer. (Wow, there's some old-style colloquialism for you.)
There are Golden Golds trading card sets, though I don't have one. I have sample cards in my type collection; autographs for most of the players can be found pretty cheap but I don't think I've come across a full set.
Over the past five years, I've come across a few tie-ins between Japanese baseball teams and various forms of alcohol. Most commonly, I find beer cans and bottles carrying team logos. In the past, I've found Hiroshima Carp and Chunichi Dragons beers. Honestly, I think you can buy anything with a Hiroshima Carp logo on it.
TaKaRa makes a very common cheap alcoholic drink called chu-hi. Not to be confused with hi-chew candy, chu-hi is a fruit-flavored beverage generally found in cans, and usually is priced a decent bit cheaper than regular beer. I've seen cans for around a dollar each.
This one is lemon-flavored. Chu-hi reminds me a lot of wine coolers, both in quality and after-effects. As such, I don't drink them often. This particular flavor wasn't really sweet, with a strong sour lemon flavor. That's not my style, really.
But as you've guessed, my interest was in the other side of the can. This one sports a Rakuten Eagles logo. That puts me at three team-affiliated beverage containers so far! I guess there are nine to go.
One unique aspect of NPB balls is that until a few years ago, each team supplied their own. There were requirements in terms of quality, weight, and so on, but I'm sure each team had their own little tweaks on the balls to match their team's strengths. And beyond that, each team has their own logos on the balls.
One of these balls isn't a gamer. Which one do you think?
Give up?
The Buffaloes ball is a facsimile. It has a little wear and tear, but it ain't real. Well, it's real in the sense that you can touch it, hold it, and throw it. But it never touched an NPB field. It does have some wear and tear, though, either from use or poor storage. The biggest giveaway here is the excessive shinyness giving it away as not having a real leather cover.
The Eagles ball might be a gamer, or could just have been a practice ball. But it has a more matte finish from use, and just feels right in the hands. Sorry, you can't hold a ball through your computer screen. And even if you could, I wouldn't let you. I know you just ate chocolate and have messy hands.
I have an official NPB ball already, though it isn't game-used. I picked it up when I went to a game back in 2012 or 2013. I'd like to get a couple more gamers if I can.
I have a lot of game-used balls, though I've never gotten one at an MLB, NPB, KBO, or CPBL game. I bought an authenticated MLB game-used ball at a Cardinals game, I think. And I've gotten plenty of BP balls that essentially started their life in a game. My KBO balls came from batting practice. And I don't have a CPBL ball yet. I have a handful of minor league balls that I got in-game and a couple BP balls there too.
Oh, to have more weeknight free time, and attend more NPB games...
Before we get to the final group of cards Zippy Zappy graciously gifted me this New Years vacation, I have to show off the non-card part of the package.
I don't think I've ever met Zippy Zappy when he doesn't have some sort of snack or candy to give me - off the top of my head, I most easily remember a bag of Funyuns chips on one occasion, and a bunch of Laffy Taffy candy on another! I have to be careful how I open these, though - random crazy parties have been known to occur just from busting a bag of Chex Mix.
Mr. Zappy loves minor league games, as do I! That's one thing I really miss about Japan. To go off on a random tangent here, there are minor leagues in Japan but there is only one "ni-gun" team for each main NPB team. That makes 12 minor league teams in all. There are independent and industrial leagues, the women's league, and college and high school ball to watch, but those are different. That said, I hope to get to more Japanese minor league and indy games this year - and if I can see a high school game or two that might be fun.
Ice cream helmets! Mmmm. Ice cream. It's seriously overpriced in Japan, just like everything else good. If you couldn't tell yet, Zippy Zappy is a Staten Island Yankees fan. Or was - we'll see what happens now that Luis Torrens is out of the Yankees farm system. I hope he sticks with them, though.
Oh, yeah, there were four autographed baseballs in that bag. Actually, I don't know who any of these guys are, but that doesn't matter. Signed baseballs are awesome.
When I was a kid playing little league baseball, we went to a San Jose Giants game with a baseball clinic before the game in the afternoon. We went down on the field and practiced with the pros, and got a few autographs as well. I managed to snag a game ball, too, and after the game waited outside of the locker room for more autographs. A couple of those players went to the majors.
Unfortunately, when I was in college, I cleared out a bunch of baseball stuff on eBay, and that included my game balls from Atlanta Braves games and those autographed San Jose Giants balls. The story about Mom throwing kids' cards out? I did it to myself.
So while I don't know these guys, the balls are a nice addition to my souvenir collection, and a really good reminder of what I lost 20 years ago.
One thing I don't get to do very often is thumb through baseball programs. This is a nice fun touch!
This Brooklyn Cyclones program has a great feature article inside. I definitely read every word. Yep.
The last non-card item is actually cards - this is an uncut sheet of 2000 SI Yankees players from a stadium giveaway. I asked Zippy Zappy to hold an extra one if he had it, and... he had it.
You can enlarge the photos if you want to see the cards, front and back. Similar to what I said yesterday, promotions like this with free cards are great ways to introduce kids to card collecting!
So now that I've shown you almost everything, here's a picture of the cards you've seen so far. As you can tell, a lot of cards didn't make the cut. But I have one more post for you from the Zippy Zappy Lucky Bag. You'll see what it is next time! Until then...
