This game was included in the January 1959 issue of Omoshiro Book magazine as a New Year's Gift. Shigeo Nagashima (HOF) appears on the cover of this four page cardboard game. The back cover contains a sumo game and includes images of Yokozuna (Grand Champions) Tochinishiki (upper left), Wakanohana (upper right) and Asashio (lower right). The actual baseball game board contains images of 19 baseball stars, 15 of whom are Japan Hall of Famers.
Due to the month and year of production, the two most important players pictured are Sadaharu Oh and Minoru Murayama. These are very early rookie images, since this game was produced several months before the start of their rookie season! Hall of Famer Motoshi Fujita's photo appears over home plate, possibly because he was named Central League MVP in 1958. He was a repeat MVP winner in 1959. This is certainly a rare honor for a pitcher anywhere in the world. Other Hall of Famers with headshots on the game board are: Katsuya Nomura, Shigeo Nagashima, Tatsuro Hirooka, Kazuhisa Inao, Masaichi Kaneda, Kazuhiro Yamauchi, Futoshi Nakanishi, Yoshio Yoshida, Yasumitsu Toyoda, Masaaki Koyama, Kenjiro Tamiya and Tadashi Sugiura.
Size: 5 1/4" x 10" when closed.
Condition: Overall fair to good, but the player images are Ex and Nm.