New BBM box sets

BBM has released information this week about some new box sets that will coming out in the next month or so.

- After skipping last year, Suntory Brewery sponsored another Premium Malts old timer game this year.  The game was played on August 6 up in Sendai.  BBM's box set commemorating the game will feature 48 "regular" cards for the players on the two team's rosters (23 for The Premium Malts, 25 for the Japan Heroes Tohoku) and either one or two "special" cards - jersey, patch or autograph card.  The rosters for the two teams are on both BBM's page for the set and Suntory's website for the game.  The set features a lot of guys who have been in the two previous sets (Isao Harimoto, Koji Yamamoto, Randy Bass, Choji Murata, Yasushi Tao, etc) plus some guys like Kazuyoshi Tatsunami who hadn't played in one of these games before.  The set will be out in mid-October.

- The "Young Eagles" set features young players for the Eagles (I guess that was obvious).  The set contains 27 "regular" cards plus one "special" card - I think there are autograph and patch cards possible.  I don't know if any players are featured on more than one card although I do know that manager Senichi Hoshino has a card in the set.  It will be released in late October.

- On the morning of Saturday, October 8, 1994, the Giants and Dragons had identical records of 69-60.  It was the last day of the regular season and the two teams were scheduled to play each other.  1994 was before the Central League implemented a playoff system, so the winner of the game would go directly to the Nippon Series while the loser would go home.  According to Japan Baseball Daily, the game would end up being the most watched game in Japanese history, achieving a 48.8% audience share.  The Giants defeated the Dragons in the game and went on to beat the Seibu Lions in the Series, winning Shigeo Nagashima his first ever championship (as manager anyway - he won more than a few as a player).  For some reason, BBM has decided that it's time to release a 37 card box set commemorating this game.  There will be 36 cards featuring players from the game (along with managers Nagashima and Morimichi Takagi I think) along with a "special" card - looks like possible autographs of Nagashima or Hideki Matsui or film cards.  The set will be out in late October.