Sayonara Home Run

Baseball? And Japan? The interest in Japanese baseball has skyrocketed in recent years, fueled by the arrival of exciting young Japanese players such as Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui (Yankees), and Kazuo Matsui (Mets). Sayonara Home Run! is a colourful and fascinating introduction to Japanese baseball through the lens of the country's playfully beautiful baseball cards. Sayonara Home Run! presents a fascinating chronicle of a lesserknown Japanese past-time. For more than 130 years baseball has been a point of intense national pride in Japan. Its history has many great stars including: Eiji Sawamura, a pitcher so talented that at 17 years old he once struck out Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Fox in succession during an international all-star game. Sayonara Home Run! showcases the gorgeous and colourful baseball cards produced in Japan from the 1900s through the 1960s and uses them to discuss great players and moments in Japanese baseball history, the role of foreign players, and the social context in which the cards themselves were produced, traded, and flipped in competitive games. Sidebars give key player biographies and offer playful asides such as a lexicon of Japanese player nicknames and Japanese baseball terms. NOT a price guide, NOT aimed at collectors, but written as an entree to this fascinating world, for anyone interested in baseball and Japan.