[Frankish]

On Page 22, the first two rows of cards are all Kaoru Betto that I believe date to 1948, his rookie year. Almost certainly they are 1948 or 1949, as those are the only two seasons he played for the Tigers, moving to the Mainichi Orions in 1950 until the end of his playing career in 1957. Betto was a star player (especially on the Orions) with a career batting average of .302 and 155 home runs during a relative short playing career. In America he is probably best known for appearing on Jeff Bridges’ t-shirt in The Big Lebowski and a couple of other films.

The bottom row is comprised of three Wakabayashi bromides. I wrote about him on Page 19, where his cards first appeared. He is interesting for many reasons, including being a Japanese American from Hawaii, which was a pretty big deal in prewar Japan.



Betto - Betto
Betto - Betto
Wakabayashi - Wakabayashi - Wakabayashi