The late Japanese baseball star Sachio Kinugasa, was nicknamed “Tetsujin” which means “Iron Man” as he shared a kindred with fellow baseball star and Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., who himself became baseball’s Iron Man during his legendary playing career. Kinugasa played for the Hiroshima Carp/Hiroshima Toyo Carp from 1965 to 1987 and along the way set the Japanese record for most consecutive games played with 2,215. Ripken, after breaking Lou Gehrig’s historic record on September 6th, 1995, eventually passed Kinugasa on June 14th, 1996 for the world record.

At some point following their historic meeting in Kansas City when Ripken set the world record for consecutive games played in baseball in 1996, Kinugasa gifted Ripken this Toyo Carp uniform set. This uniform set has a white jersey, white pants and a red cap. The white button-down jersey was made Descente and has a red wishbone “C” and “CARP” in Tuscan font red tackle twill on the upper left chest. Kinugasa’s number “3” is sewn on the upper right chest in the same red tackle twill. A Descente tag with a red “89” and red “3” is sewn on the inside back center tail. The sleeves have red/white/red stripes on the ends and “HIROSHIMA” is embroidered in red on the left sleeve. The back has “KINUGASA” and “3” sewn on in red tackle twill. The matching all-white pants were also made by Descente and have the same tagging as the jersey with the red “89” and red “3” on the inside tag. The final item is Kinugasa’s hat that is an all-red wool cap with a six-panel crown and a wishbone “C” logo embroidered on the front in navy and white embroidery. The cap was made by Mizuno and Kinugasa’s number “3” is handwritten in black marker on the green underside brim and he signed his name to the right of the number. The inner head band is a brown leather that displays some cracking. This uniform set comes directly from the personal collection of Cal Ripken, Jr. and a signed LOA from Cal will accompany these items.

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