John Britton and Jimmy Newberry were the first two African American ex-Negro leaguers to play in Japan Pro Baseball. Both made their debuts in 1952 with the Hankyu Braves. The two players had been teammates with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League during the mid to late 1940s, and more recently had been St. Louis Browns farmhands. Bill Veeck, the Browns' owner, loaned both players to the Hankyu Braves for the 1952 season. Britton, a third baseman, performed especially well in 1952 batting .316, making the All-Star team. He returned stateside after the 1953 season, having batted a robust .293 during his time in Japan.

The JF 62a Calbee or Matsuo Caramel Short set has been assigned a scarcity factor of R5 in Japanese Baseball Cards Checklist & Price Guide, Vintage Edition 4.0 by Gary Engel. This means that five or fewer examples of this card are known. The card fronts contain the same text and images as JF 62b, but the images are cropped slightly differently because JF 62a images are a bit smaller in the vertical dimension. There are two types of JF 62a cards. In Type 1, the Matsuo Caramel version, no vertical Japanese text is printed on the front image. In the Type 2 version (offered here), "Calbee Caramel" is printed in Japanese within a white vertical bar on the front.

Only two JF 62a Calbee or Matsuo Caramel cards have been encapsulated by SGC. Both cards received the grade of SGC 1.

Size: 1 15/32” x 2 1/16”

Condition: SGC 1 (Poor)