Lot # 41: 1950 Uncatalogued Large Bromide--Makoto Kozuru (HOF)/Yoshiyuki Iwamoto (HOF)

Category: Baseball Cards

Starting Bid: $40.00

Bids: 7 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Auction 58 Ended 8/29/2020",
which ran from 8/10/2020 8:00 PM to
8/29/2020 11:00 PM



This card of two HOF superstars commemorates a season to remember at the plate. In 1950, the duo of Kozuru and Iwamoto put up numbers to rival Ruth and Gehrig or Mantle and Maris at their finest. Makoto Kozuru, known as Japan's Joe DiMaggio, played Japan Pro Baseball from 1942 to 1958 with the Dragons, Flyers, Stars, Robins and Carp. He may be Japan's most overlooked superstar. He is the holder of three all time single season records, all set during 1950, when he had 161 RBI, 143 runs scored and 376 total bases. Additionally, in 1950, he hit .355 with 51 homers. Naturally, he won the Central League MVP award that year, leading the Robins to the league pennant. And that .355 batting average was no fluke. Kozuru had batted .361 in 1949! This card dates from that spectacular 1950 season.

Kozuru shares the card with his teammate and fellow hall of famer, Yoshiyuki Iwamoto. Playing only briefly in Japan Pro Baseball before World War II, Iwamoto spent most of his prime years playing in the Japanese industrial leagues. He finally returned to Japan Pro Baseball in 1949. Iwamoto, like Kozuru, put up tremendous numbers in 1950. That season, at age 39, Iwamoto hit .351 and slugged 39 homers. At age 40, he hit four homers in a single game to go with 18 RBI! Ultimately, he played through age 45 at Japan's highest level.

The winner of this card will own a fitting tribute to Japan's mid- century dynamic duo. The card was originally a second prize premium from a display sheet from an unknown bromide set. Blank backed.

Size: Approximately 3 3/8" x 5 1/4"

Condition: Ex/Mt corners, borders and gloss, but we can only assign it an overall Vg/Ex grade because of a very minor amount of glue on the front. The card also has extra paper and glue on the blank back due to previous mounting on a display sheet. However, every example of this card will have been mounted on a display sheet and will contain the extra paper and glue on the back, which is not considered a flaw in the Japanese card collecting hobby.

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