2002 BBM 1st Version

2002 BBM 1st Version Set Summary

Size:  439 cards
Cards Per Team:  32 (team card, manager + 30 players)
Team Card Theme:  2002 Draft Class
Number Of Leader Cards: 32
Checklists: 1 
Subsets: 2001 Memorial Records (6), Japan National Team (16)
Inserts: Best 9, Prime Time Players
Memorabilia Cards: Jersey cards for the 2001 League MVPs - Roberto Petagine and Tuffy Rhodes; Jersey cards for the 2001 Victory Leaders - Shujo Fujii and Daisuke Matsuzaka; Combo Jersey card featuring both Petagine and Rhodes
Parallels: 120 cards have silver facsimile autographs, 12 cards have gold facsimile autographs

Notable Rookies: Toshiaki Imae, Toshiya Sugiuchi, Mitsutaka Gotoh, Takeya Nakamura, Toru Hosokawa, Daisuke Yamai

For the 2002 season, BBM tried something different.  Instead of putting out one large 600+ card set, they would instead put out two smaller sets called 1st and 2nd Version.  The practice of stopping the printing midway through the season and replacing one or two teams cards for the purpose of updating their uniforms would end as well - the 2nd Version set could essentially function as a "Late Series" for the entire 1st Version set.

What BBM did was drop 10 players from each team (giving each team 30 players) so that there would be 120 cards fewer in the 1st Version set then there had been in the pre-Late Series sets from the previous couple year's sets.  The 2nd Series would also have 30 players per team but not necessarily the same 30 as the 1st Version set.

For 2002, BBM opted to split their two "standard" insert sets (at least since 2000) between the two Version sets - the 19 card Best 9 set would be inserted into the 1st Version set and the 18 card Golden Glove set would be inserted into the 2nd Version set.

#BN14

There was a second insert set for the 1st Version called Prime Time Players.  These 12 cards (one for each team) used the "lenticular" process to give them a 3D look.  (There was also a promo version of the set that did not use the "lenticular" effect)

#PP1

Continuing a theme begun in the 2001 set, the 2002 1st Version set featured a subset called "2001 Memorial Records" that highlighted milestones reached and records set in the previous season.  The 2002 cards included Tomoaki Kanemoto reaching 1002 at bats without grounding into a double play, Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara appearing in 78 games, Shinya Miyamoto laying down 67 sacrifice bunts, Michihiro Ogasawara scoring runs in 17 consecutive games, Tuffy Rhdes hitting 55 home runs and Yoshitomo Tani hitting 52 doubles.

#405

BBM had gotten their first license to do cards of the Japan National Team for the 2001 Baseball World Cup.  They did a 47 card box set for the team over the 2001-02 winter and then included 16 cards for the team as a subset in the 1st Version set.  The players included in the set were Shinnosuke Abe, Yuya Andoh, Shugo Fujii, Akihiro Higashide, Hirokazu Ibata, Tadahito Iguchi, Taichiro Kamisaka, Kosuke Katoh, Ikuro Katsuragi, Susumu Nakanowatari, Hayato Nakamura, Tomoaki Satoh, Takayuki Shinohara, Yoshinobu Takahashi, Fumitoshi Takano and Hayato Terahara.

#419

Once again, BBM did two separate facsimile signature parallels.  There are 120 (10 per team) "silver" signatures (they look gray to me) and 12 (1 per team) gold signatures.  Unlike 2001, the 12 gold signature parallels do not match the 12 Prime Time Player inserts (although there are only two differences).

#94 Silver Parallel

Other cards and ephemera:

#172

#131

#262

Back Of #344 (Michihiro Ogasawara)

#235

#428

#375

Ad included in packs

Wrapper

Box

UPDATE:  Starting in 2002, BBM combined the poster and information sheet they had been including in the boxes into a single sheet - poster on the front and checklist on the back.  The new sheet was small enough to fit in my scanner: