Well, I've been expecting it all year and it got announced today on BBM's website: a set commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Orix buying the Hankyu Braves. The team played as the Orix Braves in 1989 and 1990, then called themselves the Blue Wave from 1991 through 2004. Following the 2004 season, Orix merged with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes - well, absorbed is probably a better word than merged as Orix remained and Kintetsu got out. The new team was the Orix Buffaloes.
Instead of the usual 99 card pack-based sets that the other recent anniversary sets have been, this is a 55 card box set. There are 33 cards of former Orix players, 15 cards for current Orix players, a six card "Scenes" subset (showing important events in Orix history) and an insert card (which could potentially be an autograph or memorabilia card).
The set should hit the stores in December.
2 comments:
I was wondering when they'd get to Orix. I almost feel they should've made this set at least 50% larger than the others as it's really covering two separate teams. I image this will add another Tuffy card or three to my wantlist.
In other news, do you happen to know if the Hideki Matsui Home Run card series is still being produced? I know Upper Deck took over producing them when he went to New York, but I don't know if they kept issuing cards past 2005. I've got about 190 of the set now, but only the NTV cards, none of the Upper Deck.
BBM did a set for Kintetsu back in 2004 when they merged the teams, so I'd expect that this is only an Orix set.
Probably only one Tuffy card - from the 2009 team.
According to Gary Engel's book, Upper Deck was doing Matsui Home Run cards at least through 2007.
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