Card Of The Week July 11

This is card #1 from the 2005 BBM Tigers 70th Anniversary set. I think it shows a picture of the 1937 team. While 1936 is considered the first season for NPB, 1937 is the first "real" season - from what I can glean from Daniel Johnson's "Japanese Baseball - A Statistical Handbook", I think the 1936 "season" was an assortment of tournaments. The 1937 and 1938 seasons were split into completely separate spring and fall season (I'd bet this was because that's how college baseball does things). The Tigers finished a half game out of first in the Spring Season (behind the Giants, of course) and won the Fall Season outright. I don't know which team this is a photo of, or if there's that much difference in the rosters of the two seaons.


I'll be curious to see what card leads off the new Tigers 75th Anniversary set.