BBM Timeline 2001

OK, if I try to do several years at once, I'll never get the posts done. Let's try a doing this a year at a time.


2001 - BBM Preview set is 124 cards including Draft Picks again. In contrast to the two previous sets, the cards feature roughly the same design the the regular set will, but with different pictures. It has two insert sets - one featuring the two MVP winners from 2000 (Hideki Matsui and Nobuhiko Matsunaka) and the other being the Best 9 of the 20th Century. The regular set is 639 cards, including "Late Series" cards for the Blue Wave and Tigers. The insert sets are Best 9, Golden Glove and Prime Time Players. There are two facsimile autograph parallel sets - gold and black. There are also jersey cards for the two MVP winners. For the first (and last) time, the insert and jersey cards are updated as part of the "Late Series", so there are two versions of each insert and memorabilia card.


The Yoshitomo Tani Variations - from left to right, Tani's cards from the Preview set (#P94), the regular set (#462) and the "Late Series" (#630).

The Diamond Heroes set grows to 276 cards with insert sets of "OB Heroes" and "Ace & Slugger", along with windbreaker and bat memorabilia cards. Pack based team sets are again issued for the Giants and Tigers with various insert and memorabilia cards (Keiichi Yabu glove and Tomohiro Niola windbreaker) along with autographs of Giants players and Masayuki Kakefu for the Tigers. BBM again issues a Giants set as a promotion for the Yomiuri Shimbun, although the set is only four cards. Boxed team sets are issued for the two pennant winners - the Swallows and the Buffaloes. Both sets contain random memorabilia cards - Tuffy Rhodes bat, Norihiro Nakamura glove and Atsunori Inaba jersey cards. For the first time, the All Star and Nippon Series set have card designs that do not resemble the regular set's. A 40 card boxed set is issued to celebrate the retirement of Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima - it contains possible memorabilia cards (jersey, patch or windbreaker) and some sort of "monochrome etched" card.


At the top of the post is a 2001 BBM box. At the bottom is a 2001 Nippon Series set box.