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Sayonara Home Run! The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card
With talented young Japanese players signing to the American Majors, interest in Japanese baseball is at an all-time high. Sayonara Home Run! introduces curious fans to Japan's national pastime through the lens of the country's playfully beautiful baseball cards. A fascinating text traces the roots and cross-cultural history of the Japanese game, while hundreds of illustrations showcase gorgeous vintage cards. Woven throughout are profiles of key Japanese players, features on important U.S. team tours of Japan (with Japanese cards of players such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio), and insights into the social history of the cards. Including primers on Japanese player nicknames and baseball terms, and the fine points of the Japanese game, Sayonara Home Run! is a must-have for anyone interested in baseball, Japan, or this unique chapter in popular design.
192 pages, Paperback
First published February 16, 2006
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About the author
John Gall
52 books38 followersJohn Gall (September 18, 1925 - December 15, 2014) was an American author and retired pediatrician. Gall is known for his 1975 book General systemantics: an essay on how systems work, and especially how they fail..., a critique of systems theory. One of the statements from this book has become known as Gall's law.
Gall started his studies in St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. He received further medical training at George Washington University Medical School in Washington, and Yale College. Eventually early 1960s he took his pediatric training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.[3]
In the 1960s Gall started as a practicing pediatrician in Ann Arbor, Michigan and became part of the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 2001 he retired after more than forty years of private practice. In the first decades of his practice he had also "conducted weekly seminars in Parenting Strategies for parents, prospective parents, medical students, nursing students, and other health care practitioners." Until 2001 he held the position of Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. Since 1958 he has been Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
After he retired, Gall and his wife Carol A. Gall moved to Walker, Minnesota, where he continued writing and published seven more titles. He died in December 2014.
Gall started his studies in St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. He received further medical training at George Washington University Medical School in Washington, and Yale College. Eventually early 1960s he took his pediatric training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.[3]
In the 1960s Gall started as a practicing pediatrician in Ann Arbor, Michigan and became part of the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 2001 he retired after more than forty years of private practice. In the first decades of his practice he had also "conducted weekly seminars in Parenting Strategies for parents, prospective parents, medical students, nursing students, and other health care practitioners." Until 2001 he held the position of Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan. Since 1958 he has been Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
After he retired, Gall and his wife Carol A. Gall moved to Walker, Minnesota, where he continued writing and published seven more titles. He died in December 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 22, 2011
Great mashup of traditional Japanese themes, baseball festishism, printing techniques, typography, and early anime. Who could ask for more?
May 18, 2008
Baseball is Japan's most popular sport, overtaking their usual national sports: Sumo wrestling, Judo and other forms within the martial arts.
This book not only gives any baseball fan a nice historical perspective on why and when the Japanese became such huge fans; It does so by using the stunning art of the Japanese baseball card to illustrate the important players, graphic trends, and children's use of the cards both in collecting and playing games with them, that emerged as baseball's Japanese history and development grew. You really do learn quite alot from this book from the writing even despite it's graphic heavy content. Each chapter is infomative and well researched, while the author's obvious love of collecting the cards and loving the sport makes this such a fun book. Did you know that there is no private ownership of baseball teams in Japan as there is in the US? Teams in Japan are all owned by corporations, hence the team names such as Hanshin Tigers and Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the spectacularly named, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. A throughly beautiful, fun, lovingly done and informative book. It will not only help anyone who was curious with say, why the Red Sox opened their 2008 season in Japan, but how history, art and sport can collide to make an altogether greater passionate diversion for a society.
This book not only gives any baseball fan a nice historical perspective on why and when the Japanese became such huge fans; It does so by using the stunning art of the Japanese baseball card to illustrate the important players, graphic trends, and children's use of the cards both in collecting and playing games with them, that emerged as baseball's Japanese history and development grew. You really do learn quite alot from this book from the writing even despite it's graphic heavy content. Each chapter is infomative and well researched, while the author's obvious love of collecting the cards and loving the sport makes this such a fun book. Did you know that there is no private ownership of baseball teams in Japan as there is in the US? Teams in Japan are all owned by corporations, hence the team names such as Hanshin Tigers and Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the spectacularly named, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. A throughly beautiful, fun, lovingly done and informative book. It will not only help anyone who was curious with say, why the Red Sox opened their 2008 season in Japan, but how history, art and sport can collide to make an altogether greater passionate diversion for a society.
December 31, 2008
This is a wonderful book, a collection of vintage Japanese baseball cards and a bit of the history behind them. I've been picking through baseball memorabilia and artifacts all my life (and have written two published books on the sport) and this ranks among the most fascinating books I've ever seen. I just discovered this book today at the bookstore of the Japanese American National Musuem in Los Angeles. To the authors: Grand slam, guys.
October 10, 2008
A colorful collection of pre-WWII and post-occupation baseball cards. Introduction to the heroes of Japanese baseball, including Shigeru "the Formidable Buffalo" Chiba and Yukio "the Heavy Drinking Pitcher" Nishimura.
May 10, 2008
The reproductions of Japanese baseball cards are great and a good, short history of Japanese baseball.
April 23, 2013
One of the rare books that you don't need to read to appreciate, but if you do the experience is enhanced. An amazing book about what should be considered art: Japanese baseball cards.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews