Introduced to the toy market in the 1950s, this battery-operated Mr. Baseball Jr. follows in the steps of earlier wind-up (or “clockwork”) mechanical games like “Home Run King” and “Home Run Babe”, both tributes to the legendary Babe Ruth.  

While Exhibit 1035 (same toy only #7 Player) is representing "The Babe", the number “3” player shown here is much scarcer and represents another legendary player Bill Terry who in 1930 set the franchise history highest batting average (.401) and marks last time NL player hit over .400.  Terry also set the Giants single-season records for hits (254) and runs scored (139), all in 1930.  

Bill Terry was indeed an all-time baseball great and his jersey number “3” with the Giants was retired in 1954 (when Terry was inducted into the Hall of fame) with this toy being produced sometime after. Understanding both players were from the Giants, and both were Hall of Fame players, we suspect these two toys were designed and produced as a targeted tribute towards this team and its hall of famers, but this is only conjecture.

Manufactured by the Sankei company this motorized version changed the loading mechanism to a new spring driven "automatic batting machine" featuring a seven (7) ball capacity and more baseball themed art on both sides of the batting machine. 

Functionality is simple, load the balls into the batting machine, flip the on/off lever to on and watch as the figure takes a swing as each ball pops up into the standard Tee-ball position. The spring is strong, and a solid hit can easily hit the plastic ball across any standard sized room to the opposite wall.

As Bill Terry swings the bat back, the ball loader simultaneously raises a ball up to the “t-ball” position where the player then takes a good (spring loaded) swing at the ball. The hit is fast and strong and when it connects in the homerun “sweet spot” the ball can easily hit the far wall in just about any room. There is however a lot of variability on where the ball is hit, resulting in a surprisingly realistic set of fouls, pop-ups, line drives, and of course home runs.

The original box is an important accessory for this toy as it provides an alternative from annoying a family member, by hitting small plastic balls in their direction, to including them in some fun 1-on-1 gameplay by hitting the box “backstop” keeping score of one of the following possibilities; Balls, Single, Double, Triple, or Home Run.