I wanted to do a quick note about an Ebay auction I won recently. This auction included most of a box of 1992 BBM Series One (16 out of the original 20 packs) along with seven unopened packs of 1990 Lotte cards.
1992 was the only year that BBM ever split their flagship set up into multiple Series. The 498 card set was split into two 249 card Series. The box I picked up was for Series One (I already had a box for Series Two). I already have the complete 1992 set so I'm not going to do a box break for this box but just so you know, each pack has 10 cards in it. I opened one pack just to see what kind of promo material was in it.
Box top
Wrapper
Promo included in pack
The 1990 Lotte cards had one card per pack. The packs also included two sticks of gum. I will not be attempting to chew any pieces of 25 year old gum (although for what's worth, the gum still bends).
Lotte wrapper
Gum
I'll be updating my post on the 1992 set with the additional packaging images. If anyone is interested in buying 15 unopened 1992 BBM Series One packs (plus the contents of the one I opened) dirt cheap, let me know.
Another player who retired at the end of 2015 was pitcher Kazuyuki Hoashi of the Hawks. He was originally drafted by the Lions in the third round of the 2000 draft from Mitsubishi Motors of the industrial leagues. He was a member of the Lions starting rotation between 2003 and 2011. His best season was probably 2008 when he went 11-6 with a 2.63 ERA. He left the Lions for Fukuoka as a free agent after the 2011 season. He missed most of 2012 due to a shoulder injury. He pitched fairly regularly for the Hawks in 2013 and 2014 but spent most of 2015 with the farm team. He made the All Star team in 2005 and 2008 and pitched in Nippon Series for the Lions in 2004 and 2008. I don't think he appeared with the Hawks in either the 2014 or 2015 Series.
Orix Buffaloes second baseman Keiichi Hirano retired at the end of the season. Hirano was drafted by the then Orix Blue Wave in the "free agent acquisition frame" of the 2001 NPB draft out of Tokai University. He became the regular second baseman for Orix in 2004 and made the All Star team for the first time in 2005 before a major injury caused by a collision with a fence chasing a foul ball caused him to miss most of the 2006 season. After not performing particularly well in 2007, Orix traded him (along with Kenta Abe) to the Hanshin Tigers for Makoto Yoshino and Osamu Hamanaka. He quickly recovered with the Tigers, winning the Comeback Player award in 2008. He made the All Star team three times (2010-12), the Best 9 team twice (2010-11) and won Golden Glove awards twice (2010-11). He left the Tigers as a free agent following the 2012 season and returned to Orix. He's missed time in two of the past three seasons due to a calf injury. Now that he's retired, he'll be returning to the Tigers to be a coach with their ni-gun team.
2002 BBM 1st Version #288
2003 Calbee #J-12
2004 Calbee #188
2005 BBM 1st Version #191
2006 BBM 1st Version #128
2008 BBM 1st Version #096
2012 BBM 1st Version #371
2012 Calbee #AS-17
2013 Front Runner Buffaloes Season Summary #21
2015 BBM 1st Version #041
Hirano was known for his head first slides, which BBM featured on several of his cards:
Sho Nakata has had quite a good week in the Premier 12.
On Wednesday, Nakata homered and drove in five of Japan's six runs (including the winning run on a sayonora hit) in their 6-5 win over Mexico. On Thursday, he drove in three of Japan's four runs when they beat the Domincan Republic 4-2. On Saturday, his three run home run broke a 2-2 tie in a game that Japan ultimately won 10-2 over the US (Japan's scoring was capped by a grand slam by Nobuhiro Matsuda). And in a crazy game against Venezuela on Sunday, he hit a two run double in the bottom of the eighth to put Japan up 4-3 in a game that saw two blown saves in the ninth inning. He was on deck when Akira Nakamura singled in the game winner in the bottom of the ninth. Through the end of Sunday's game, he's hitting .526 with two home runs and 13 RBIs.
I don't normally go for memorabilia cards but I had an opportunity to pick up a couple cheap on Ebay recently. Here's Nakata's jersey card from the 2012 BBM Fighters set (#FM1):
Another face in the crowd of players who retired at the end of the 2015 season belongs to Akihito Fujii of the Hanshin Tigers. Fujii was taken in the second round of the 1998 draft out of Kinki University by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. He was a backup catcher during his time with Kintetsu. He made his first Nippon Series appearance with the Buffaloes in their losing effort against the Swallows in 2001. He was let go when Orix and Kintetsu "merged" following the 2004 season and he ended up with the expansion Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in their inaugural season of 2005. He was the starting catcher for the Eagles in 2005 and 2006 but moved back to a backup role when Motohiro Shima joined the team in 2007. He moved on to the Tigers for the 2011 season - ostensibly to back up Kenji Johjima but he ended up being thrust into a larger role when Johjima was hurt and ineffective. He made the All Star team for the first and only time in 2013, his last year in the starting catcher role. He again played in a Nippon Series in 2014, appearing in all five games for the Tigers as they lost to the Hawks.
1999 BBM #490
2001 BBM Nippon Series #S43
2004 BBM Kintetsu Memorial #K17
2005 BBM 1st Version #224
2006 BBM 1st Version #192
2009 BBM Eagles #E034
2012 Calbee #133
2013 BBM 2nd Version #527
2015 BBM Tigers #T38
I used his Baseball Reference Bullpen wiki entry as a source for my writeup - I need to remember to use those as a resource more. Mischa Gelman has done great work writing up bios of NPB players there.
- BBM is releasing a set for Hiroki Kuroda called "Homecoming". This will be a 19 card box set featuring (you probably can already guess) 18 cards in the base set plus a "special" card that could be a memorabilia card (jersey or undershirt) or an autographed card. The set will be released on November 27.
Every time I read the set name, this starts running through my head:
- Epoch is putting out a box set for the CL Champion Swallows. I'm not entirely sure, but it looks like there's 32 cards in the box - 30 cards for the base set and two "special" cards. The "special" cards could include (I think) parallel cards and both facsimile and real autograph cards, including autographs from OB players like Tsutomu Wakamatsu and Atsuya Furuta. The set will be out on November 28.
- I'm a bit confused about another box set that Epoch is releasing in December. It's called something like "Dragons X Mizuno" and if that sounds kind of familiar, that's probably because Front Runner did two sets last year called "Carp X Mizuno" and "Marines X Mizuno". I'm confused because I don't understand why Epoch is doing this and not Front Runner. I wonder if Front Runner has been bought out by Epoch? Front Runner has not released any sets since spring of this year. Anyway, the Dragons set will contain 25 cards - 24 in the base set plus one "special" card that could be one of a plethora of autograph cards. The set will be released in late November.
- Epoch is also releasing another super high end set in conjunction with the Japan Baseball Promotion Association (aka the OB Club) called "MVP Of The Year". Like their "National Record Holders" set from earlier this year, this set is sold in one pack boxes. Each pack contains five cards - two "regular" cards, one "shadowbox" cards and two autograph cards. There are 27 "regular" cards available along with 27 "shadowbox" cards (I assume then that the "shadowbox" cards are a parallel of the "regular" cards but I don't know that for sure). All the cards are serially numbered. The box's MSRP is supposedly 15,000 yen (~$121) although the OB Club's own website is selling them for 16,200 (~$131). It will be released on December 12.
- BBM's first set for 2016 will also be released on November 27. It's their annual "Historic Collection" set which is traditionally their first set of the "model" year. This year's theme is "Stadium Story" which the website says will highlight old stadiums like Korakuen, Kawasaki, Nagoya, Fujidera, Nishinomiya and Heiwadai. There will be 144 cards in the base set (which has been the standard size of the "Historic Collection" sets since 2003) and 24 insert cards split into two 12 cards sets - one featuring OB players and one featuring active players. There will also be numerous autograph cards available. I've been hoping for some sort of set or subset highlighting ballparks for a while - I'm just not sure how they're going to pull this off. I guess I'll find out in less than three weeks.
Yet another player who retired at the end of the 2015 season was Baystars pitcher Hisanori Takahashi. He was drafted in the first round by the Giants in the 1999 draft out of Toshiba in the industrial leagues. He had previously played for Komazawa in the Tohto collegiate league. His best season with the Giants was 2007, when he went 14-4 with an ERA of 2.75 and 141 strikeouts. That season was the only time he ever made an All Star team or was voted onto the post-season Best 9 team.
He left Yomiuri following the 2009 season to give MLB a try. He signed a minor league deal with the Mets and spent all of 2010 with the big league team, going 10-6 with a 3.61 ERA in 53 appearances, mostly in relief. He signed with the Angels for the 2011 season and spent most of the next two seasons with them. He was released in late 2012 and was picked up by the Pirates. Released once again after the 2012 season, he signed with the Cubs and made their 2013 opening day roster but was sent to Triple-A Iowa after just a couple weeks. He was sold to the Rockies in June and spent the remainder of the season with their Triple-A team in Colorado Springs. After the Rockies released him, he returned to Japan and signed with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars where he's spent the last two seasons.
