20 Years Of OB Team Sets

I realized the other day that I was about to let 2024 pass without commemorating the 20th anniversary of that staple of BBM's card issues - the OB team set.  BBM released the first of these in 2004 to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the Yomiuri Giants.  I thought I'd update the list of these sets that I did ten years ago to include what BBM's added since then.

So what do I mean by an "OB team set"?  An OB team set is a set of cards that is primarily made up of former (OB) players for a specific team.  These players may be retired or active on another team (in NPB, MLB or elsewhere).  The set may also include active players for the team but they will be in the minority.

BBM has issued these sets fairly steadily over the past twenty years.  There have been 50 of these sets in all with 26 coming in the first ten years (2004-13) and 24 coming in the last ten (2014-23).  There's been a least one set issued in each year with the exceptions of 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2024.  2014 saw the largest number of these sets with seven being issued that year.  Most of these sets have been pack-based but there's been a handful of box sets as well.

The initial sets were mostly in commemoration of anniversaries of one sort or another - team founding, team moving, team getting bought, etc.  There was a stretch around 2012-15 where there were several sets done as part of the "Legend" series which concentrated on a particular time period for a handful of teams.  There was also a series of "Achievement" box sets in 2014-15 that specialized in mostly players from the 1970's for a few teams.  In more recent years, BBM has issued a series of "Team History" sets that don't really commemorate any specific event or era but rather purport to cover the team's entire history (although in reality they mostly contain relatively recent players who are still able to sign autographs).  This series may have run its course after BBM issued these sets for nine of the twelve teams, especially since there was no entry in it in 2024.

Here's a table listing all of the OB team sets that BBM has issued in the past 20 years.  Each team has at least one with the Hawks having the most with seven.  I have added links to posts on my blog about the sets that I've written about (or all but the 2004 Giants 70th Anniversary and 2006 Dragons 70th Anniversary sets).

Team	Year	Set	Commemorates
Chiba Lotte Marines	2008	Lotte 40th Anniversary	Lotte buying Orions in 1968
	2011	Chiba 20th Anniversary	Lotte moving to Chiba from Kawasaki in 1992
	2021	Marines History 1950-2021	Marines team history
Chunichi Dragons	2006	Dragons 70th Anniversary	Dragons 70th Anniversary
	2011	Dragons 75th Anniversary	Dragons 75th Anniversary
	2014	Dragons Legend	Senichi Hoshino's stints as manager (1987-1991, 1996-2001)
	2016	Dragons 80th Anniversary	Dragons 80th Anniversary
	2021	Dragons History 1936-2021	Dragons team history
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks	2008	Hawks 70th Anniversary	Hawks 70th Anniversary
	2013	Hawks 75th Anniversary	Hawks 75th Anniversary
	2013	Fukuoka Legacy	Nippon Series Championships in Fukuoka
	2014	Hawks Achievement	70's era Hawks players
	2015	Softbank 10th Anniversary	10th Anniversary of Softbank buying the Hawks
	2018	Hawks 80th Anniversary	Hawks 80th Anniversary
	2022	Hawks History 1938-2022	Hawks team history
Hanshin Tigers	2005	Tigers 70th Anniversary	Tigers 70th Anniversary
	2010	Tigers 75th Anniversary	Tigers 75th Anniversary
	2013	Tigers Legend	1980's
	2015	Tigers 80th Anniversary	Tigers 80th Anniversary
	2021	Tigers History 1935-2021	Tigers team history
Hiroshima Toyo Carp	2008	Hiroshima Memorial	Closing of Hiroshima Municipal Stadium
	2009	Carp 60th Anniversary	Carp 60th Anniversary
	2015	Carp Legend	Players from Carp pennant winners between 1975 and 1991
	2020	Carp History 1950-2020	Carp team history
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters	2013	Fighters 10 Years in Hokkaido	10th Anniversary of Fighters moving to Sapporo
Orix Buffaloes	2009	Hankyu Memorial	Players from Hankyu era
	2009	Orix 20th Anniversary	20th Anniversary of Orix buying Braves
	2011	Legend Of The Bs	1970's era Hankyu and Kintetsu
	2014	Orix 25th Anniversary	25th Anniversary of Orix buying Braves
	2014	Braves Achievement	70's Era Braves players
	2021	Buffaloes History 1936-2021	Buffaloes team history
Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes	2009	Kintetsu Memorial	60th Anniversary of founding of Kintetsu team in 1950
	2015	Buffaloes Achievement	70's era Buffaloes players
Saitama Seibu Lions	2008	Lions Memorial	Players from before Seibu bought the Lions in 1978
	2008	Seibu 30th Anniversary	30th Anniversary of Seibu buying the Lions in 1978 (and moving them from Fukuoka to Tokorozawa)
	2009	Lions 60th Anniversary	Lions 60th Anniversary
	2010	Lions Classic	Lions throw-back uniforms
	2014	Lions Legend	80's - 90's Lions players
	2023	Lions History 1950-2023	Lions team history
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles	2014	Eagles 10th Anniversary	Eagles 10th Anniversary
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	2009	Yakult 40th Anniversary	40th Anniversary of Yakult buying the Swallows in 1969
	2022	Swallows History 1950-2022	Swallows team history
Yokohama DeNA Baystars	2008	Yokohama 30th Anniversary	30th Anniversary of then-Whales moving to Yokohama from Kawasaki
	2013	Baystars 20th Anniversary	20th Anniversary of Whales changing their name to Baystars
	2015	Whales Achievement	70's era Whales players
	2019	Baystars 70th Anniversary	70th Anniversary of the founding of the team that is now the Baystars
Yomiuri Giants	2004	Giants 70th Anniversary	Giants 70th Anniversary
	2013	Giants Legend	Shigeo Nagashima's stints as manager (1975-1980, 1993-2001)
	2014	Giants 80th Anniversary	Giants 80th Anniversary
	2020	Giants History 1934-2020	Giants team history

I had mentioned in my post ten years ago that even though all twelve teams had at least one OB team set, there were great swaths of some team's histories that weren't covered in the sets.  I specifically mentioned the pre-1969 Marines, pre-1970 Swallows, pre-1978 Baystars and the pre-2004 Fighters.  I'm happy to report that two of those four ignored histories - the Swallows and the Baystars - have been dealt with somewhat.  You'd think the Marines one was too but the "Marines History 1950-2021" set pretty much ignores the 19 years of the team's existence before being bought by Lotte in 1969.