Some 1990s Cards From Japan

I'd really been wanting some Japanese baseball cards to ogle and then slot away into the collection, and Dave S, a new trading partner, totally stepped up and then some. He sent me a batch of 1994 "Baseball Magazine" cards featuring Japanese league players, along with a few 2012s as well - including this guy, Hideki Matsui, of the Yomiuri Giants, aka Tokyo Giants. Yeah, that Hideki Matsui, "Godzilla" of the 2000s New York Yankees. 

Check out his stat line in 1993: .223 average, 11 homers, 27 RBIs. I believe, given the year, that this would be Matsui's rookie card - and checking his stats on Baseball Reference, he never again hit that low in MLB until his final year in the bigs. There were a number of other fantastic cards in the batch as well, but no weird Ichiros or Kaz Sasakis or any of the other dudes who were part of the big Japanese wave of the late 90s/early 2000s - at least no guys I can remember. 

Thanks so much to Dave for sending these - they're a blast.