This Kaoru Betto card was unknown to the collecting public until
December 2022. From the prize sheet
residue that appears on the card’s blank back, we know that the card was
originally attached to a display sheet, most likely as a 3rd prize
winner. In the card’s close-up portrait,
Betto is shown wearing a cap used only during the 1948 season by the Hanshin
Tigers, Betto’s first team. Therefore,
we proclaim this card to be one of Betto’s rarest rookie cards, if not the
rarest.
The bespectacled superstar joined Japan Pro Baseball at the age of
27, but he made up for lost time by batting .326 and being named to the first
of six consecutive league Best 9 teams.
The winning bidder will own one of only two known copies of this special
card of one of Japan Pro Baseball’s immortals.
Size: 2 3/16” x 3 3/32”
Condition: Would be Vg to
Vg/Ex, but the number 22 has been inscribed on the blank back by a previous
owner.