Japanese Baseball- Shigeru Sugishita

Why would I have Japanese baseball postcards? It's only because my neighbor had a Japanese pen pal when he was a boy. Otherwise, these would be hard to come by.

Shigeru Sugishita was one of the premier pitchers in Japanese professional baseball in the 1950s. This picture is circa 1951, when he was pitching for the Dragons. He beat out Wally Yonamine for Central League MVP in 1954 (a very big deal!) and was presented with the Sawamura Award three times. Sugishita was inducted into to the Hall of Fame in 1958.

If you're interested in finding out more about Japanese baseball or Japanese baseball cards, this is a good source: Rob's Japanese Cards

Happy New Year

I'm posting this lovely card mostly because David over at the Postcard Gallery has posted a similar postcard and I thought it would be interesting to look at them both together.  His New Year's lady has the sense not to grab onto the wreath of holly, but there are other differences too.  See if you can find them.

Streetcar Sunday - Kharkiv, Ukraine

A pen pal from Kharkiv sent me this card in the 1980s. Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine, after Kiev. Kharkiv has a population of just over 1.5 million and an underground metro system with 28 stations and about 35 miles of track. Kharkiv's metro system includes buses, trolleybuses, subway, and streetcars. The streetcars have been in operation for over 100 years!

This is the twelfth week of Streetcar Sundays. Click here to view previous Streetcar Sundays.