Base card, Baseball, Stories

The Law Student that became Famous

Leave a comment

How did this law student end up inside packs of baseball cards?

Future Star Kazuo Uzuki

On 6 February 2008, a “Future Star” card was released for a supposed high school superstar named Kazuo “The Uzi” Uzuki. Uzi was a type of rapid-firing submachine gun, so his nickname was a homage to the speed that Kazuo could pitch.

The set was 2008 Topps Baseball Series 1 and the #FS1 card was included at a rate of 1:72 packs. The card stated that Kazuo Uzuki’s home was Sarufutsu, Japan. This was a real location and was the northernmost village in Hokkaido, Japan.

Kazuo Uzuki should not be confused with Kazuo Matsui, who was the first Japanese infielder to sign with a Major League Baseball team when he signed with the New York Mets on 17 December 2003. At the time, Kazuo Matsui was an active player on the Houston Astros. His card was released in 2008 Topps Baseball Series 2 at #581.

The person actually depicted on the card was, at the time, a New York University law student who grew up in Maryland named Sensen Lin. He was not even Japanese.

“I’m Chinese and I don’t collect baseball cards…I’ve never played [organized baseball], I’ve been to like one or two Baltimore Orioles games and did more drinking than watching the games. I’m probably pretty sorry [at baseball] to tell you the truth…I’ve played catch with friends and I’m just no good…they (Topps) put me in all these funky poses. I don’t know that much about baseball so I didn’t exactly know what I was doing. Turns out, the guys at Topps added some things. I wasn’t wearing that necklace and the glove in the picture is different. They also photoshopped in the background.”

– Sensen Lin (a.k.a. Kazuo Uzuki)

Lin said he was involved because of his friend who worked for Topps. He was paid $600 to be photographed in a baseball jersey and to appear in a YouTube video, which was probably this one:

The video was made 8 March 2008 for the hoax as a future baseball prospect in Central Park, New York. Surprisingly, the video did not catch on with only 1,290 views.

As a side note, the 2008 Topps set had some non-baseball cards, such as their Campaign insert set which included a rare Sarah Palin card in an old pageant dress (#C08-SPb) as well as Barack Obama (#C08-BO) and Joseph Biden (#C08-JB).

Topps’ Response

The card was meant as an April Fools’ Day joke. In Japanese, Kazuo Uzuki means “the first son of April.”

According to the New York Daily News, Clay Luraschi, Topps’ baseball brand manager, said the card was intended to celebrate the opening of the baseball season and was inspired by Sports Illustrated’s notorious 1985 April Fools’ hoax article “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch” written by George Plimpton about a fake New York Mets pitcher.

Where is Sensen Lin now?

According to his LinkedIn page, Lin, a former Ropes and Grey LLP law firm associate, is now the Senior Vice President, Assistant General Counsel in New York at Singapore’s GIC.

If you want to read more on this story, the resources below will provide you with a great source of additional information.

Resources:

Leave a comment