Interesting Player Goods?

I'm astonished anyone remembers the Reggie Bar. I was the proud thrower of one on April 13, 1978 (Opening Day) at Yankee Stadium in 1978, when Reggie Jackson smacked the first pitch to him into the bleachers. Free Reggie bars had been given out at the gate to celebrate his 3 home runs in the final game of the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers. Of course, when Mr. October hit his Opening Day dinger, chants of "Reg-gie! Reg-gie!" erupted and the crowd hurled the chocolate bars onto the field (a better idea than eating them, as they tasted horrible).

Anyway, as regards Hanshin Tiger souvenirs, I have two musical instruments worth mentioning. One is a portable digital keyboard made by the Kawai piano firm, featuring Tiger stripes and logo, emblazoned with "2003 Central League Champions" on the top. That one set me back a bit, but when I saw it in a Takatsuki music shop -- it was the last one they had -- well, as a pianist, how could I really live without that?

A few years later I purchased a Hanshin Tigers shamisen, a three-stringed traditional instrument, in Naha, Okinawa. The Okinawan version of "shamisen" is called "sanshin" which I suppose says something curiously unflattering about the Tigers ("sanshin" can mean either "three strings" or "three strikes" depending on the kanji), but whatever. Apparently NPB produced twelve versions of these shamisens, one for each team with the logos on the drumhead.

Sara B, thanks for your interesting contributions. I grew up in New York in the '70s, so I remember the Reggie Bar clearly and may even remember trying to eat one. Only one.

You mentioned some interesting Hanshin goods. When Nomura first became manager and the Tigers got off to a hot start, weren't they selling solid gold busts of him for something ridiculous for like 1 million yen? It would be interesting to know how many were made and if anyone actually bought one. Well, I'm sure someone did, but they probably didn't display it proudly for long.

According to Sparky Lyle in "The Bronx Zoo," when you opened up a Reggie Bar it would tell you how good it was.

Pacific Trading Cards issued the Ken Griffey Jr. Chocolate Candy Bar in his 1989 MLB rookie season. It was pretty tasty!

Any candy bars named after Japanese players? I've seen bento, beer, etc., but wasn't sure of the Reggie Bar equivalent.

[I realize that this is an old thread, but I just need to add this.] Warren Cromartie had a candy bar (the "Cro-bar") when he played with the Montreal Expos.

What about the 'Oh Henry' for Henry Rodriguez, also with the Expos?

The Lotteria hamburger chain featured the "Bobby Burger" for a couple of years. It was a hamburger that included a slice of pineapple. Not sure where that idea came from.

Bobby actually came up with the recipe for it -- I remember when he mentioned it on his blog way back in the day.

Though, the Bobby Burger was only in widespread Lotterias for a short time, in the fall of 2006 and maybe a little bit of 2007. After that, you could only get it at the Lotteria behind home plate at Chiba Marine Stadium, at least as far as I know, it was gone from all the Lotterias in the areas of Tokyo/Saitama that I lived in, and even the Lotteria in the Kaihin-Makuhari shopping center didn't have it. It disappeared from Chiba Marine Stadium after the end of the 2009 season when Bobby left (and the gimmick was replaced with the far inferior Kim Tae-Kyun Burger...)