Still in Touch: The Lifetime Friendship Between Masanori Murakami and Dick Estelle

The 1965 Topps Dick Estelle/Masanori Murakami Rookie Stars card, #282 in the set, will never be placed in the same ranks as RC combinations such as, say, Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman in ’68 or Paul Molitor/Alan Trammell in ’78. Yet the Rookie Card combo of the two San Francisco Giants pitchers, Murakami and Estelle, is special in its own way. For one thing, they’re still friends and still communicate with each other 57 years after the release of their shared card. “I still send Christmas cards and such to him now,” said Murakami in a written correspondence. Murakami lives in Japan,…