My Tokyo Rose

As a collector, it's tough to define myself. Most collectors have their own niche and I have yet to really find myself. I'm a team collector (Royals), a set builder (damn near any set, but namely 1975) and a player collector (Alex Gordon). I really shouldn't have any trouble finding something to write about. Today my boy Alex has made it easy thanks to my latest PC pickup, this 2013 Sega Cardgen Alex Gordon card.

For those who don't know what Sega CardGen is, it's basically a fusion between baseball cards and video games produced by Topps and Sega. The kicker is that the arcade machines used to play the game are only found in Japan. Players buy packs of cards straight from the machines and then literally plug them into position slots on the machine. They then can keep the cards and built their all-star lineup to play with. 

I feel that the biggest issue with sports cards in America is the lack of interest from kids. Machines like this would be the perfect way to get kids involved. I'm sure they already have a concept like this with Pokemon machines or something, so why not baseball? Topps could put little QR codes on cards that could be scanned with an Xbox Kinect or something and they'd have a hit video game on their hands. Or not. 

Back to the Gordon card. I was pretty stoked to see Alex get a 6 out of 8 star ranking because I've always wondered how many stars out of 8 that he was worth. Judging off his 2012 season, I'd say that's pretty fair. I'd bet he drops a star next year, but who knows, it's Japan. On the back the only English I can read is "The Doubles Producer", which he was last year when he led the league in doubles. This year, not so much.

My buddy Ziveus101 from the Beckett Boards introduced me to Sega CardGens and was kind enough to give me a rough translation of the back:

"A prodigy who was the second overall selection in the 2005 MLB player draft. Ever since he made his MLB debut in 2007 he's struggled here and there but in 2011 he had a batting average of .303, hit 23 home runs and became one of the best power hitters in the majors. He also has a strong arm as evidenced by his 20 outfield assists in 2011 and his 17 outfield assists in 2012."

Not sure how 23 homers makes you a top power hitter, especially when you follow it up with 14, but I can't complain. All in all, this is definitely one of the coolest cards in my Gordon collection.