2014 Heritage Rookie Stars: 1965 Topps #282 Dick Estelle & Masanori Murakami

We are a week away from 2014 Topps Heritage, today we bring you one of my favorite cards from the original 1965 set:

1965 Topps #282 Giants Rookie Stars Dick Estelle & Masanori Murakami

Masanori Murakami was the first Japanese MLB player way back in 1964. He preceded Hideo Nomo by three and a half decades. As a lefthanded relief pitcher Murakami pitched farily well for the Giants. Unfortunately due to a variety of contract issues and failed negotiations between the Giants, MLB and the Japanese League Nankai Hawks Murakami would return to Japan after a mere two seasons in the States.  

For further information, I highly recommend this Masanori Murakami biography that I believe was written by High School student in New York City. The Bio- further cites "Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game" which as it's name infers is mostly Murakami commenting on his career - not terrific writing but an interesting read.   

Murakami was honored by the Giants in 1995, throwing out the first pitch prior to a game versus the Dodgers. Coincidentally the LA starter that night was Hideo Nomo who took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, Royce Clayton broke up the Nomo No-No which was the only hit for the Giants. 

1965 Topps
I had thought Masahiro Tanaka would have been a great candidate for the #282 card in 2014T Heritage, but Ben Henry as pointed out over at the Baseball Card Blog that Tanaka's signing may have happened to late for Topps to send the card to print.  I hope that Topps figures it out, Tanaka would be a nice bonus for 2014 Heritage.

1965 Topps featured a number of Rookie Stars cards including 3 and 4 player varieties. 

1965 Topps #597 Rookie Stars Twins
1965 Topps #561 Rookie Stars Dodgers

No idea why Joe Nosseck got the prime spot in the Twins card. Perhaps alphabetic order. Rich Reese had the best career of the three Players. As far as the Dodger card, Jim Lefebvre was probably the most successful - in 1965 he even beat out Joe Morgan for Rookie of the Year. 

Other Voices
The Great 1965 Topps Blog - Kevin has a lot more info on the Dick Estelle half of the above card.

1965 Topps/2014 Heritage Index
Base - #534 John Herrnstein
Rookie Cup - #460 Dick Allen
Rookie Stars - #282 Dick Estelle & Masanori Murakami

More info on 1965 Topps
The entire 1965 Topps Series was covered by Kevin B of Orioles Card "O" the day on The Great 1965 Topps Project
Cardboard Connection
Sports Collectors Digest (TS O' Connell)
Golden Age of Baseball Cards
Dean's Cards
Beckett

PSA

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
HSMSE Sports Journalism Blog
Sports Illustrated 

Mystery Japanese Card

Any Ideas on what this card is?

2009 Topps WBC #1 Yu Darvish

Almost Perfect

 

2009 Topps WBC #1 Yu Darvish

There is a reason they call them Perfect Games - The pitcher has to be on, and a lot of things have to go their way. 

In fairness to the baseball fates Darvish did give up some soft liners that went directly to infielders.  That sort of balances out the the 5-hole single that ended Yu Darvish's Perfect Game and No-Hit bid.

Regardless the 2013 season is off to a fun start, I hope the remainder of the campaign can measure up to the drama of these first few games.

Last night a question came up from @SoozOnSports about removing Darvish on pitch count.  I cited a 1990 opening day game that featured Nolan Ryan's removal from a No-Hitter.
The game is noteworthy for several reasons.  

1) There is the significance of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan being on the mound.  By 1990 Mr Ryan was already a Hall of Famer and had likely earned the right to start and finish a game any way he pleased. 

2) As we all know Nolan Ryan authored a Major league record 7 no-htters - 5 prior to the Opening Day game  noted above. 

3) Nolan Ryan is a noted opponent of pitch counts

4) Finally Yu Darvish and and Nolan Ryan are both members of the same organization, the Texas Rangers.

So yes way back in 1990 Nolan Ryan, pitch count opponent, was removed from a No-Hitter largely because it was early in the season and he had not been stretched out.

This is only partially true - nothing exists in a vacuum.  If we look a little deeper into the Ryan non-No-Hitter we find he was only 5 innings deep.  He had 91 pitches at that point - Yu Darvish was 20 outs into a perfect game by the time he threw his 91st pitch.

The Ryan Box Score also does not note that there was a labor lockout prior to the 1990 season. At the time of the Rangers opening day game the Ryan Express had only logged about 7 innings during an abbreviated and rushed spring training. While Ryan is not a fan of pitch counts, there was likely little doubt he was going to be lifted from that particular game prior to it's conclusion - regardless of the circumstances.

1986 Topps Yu Darvish

Another one of those 1986 Topps Fantasy Cards

Faux 1986 Topps Yu Darvish