2019 BBM 2nd Version set

2019 BBM 2nd Version Set Summary

Size: 321 cards (cards numbered 337-600, the 21 cards of "Ceremonial First Pitch" subset are separately numbered FP01-FP21 and 36 cards for "Cross Sunrise" subset are separately numbered CS37-CS72)
Cards Per Team: 19 (team card + 18 players)
Team Card Theme: Early Season Candids
Number Of Leader Cards: N/A
Checklists: 0
Subsets: 1st Version Update (36), Ceremonial First Pitch (21), Cross Sunrise (36)
Inserts: Franchise Builder (12), Young Core (12), Phantom (12, #'d to 25)
Memorabilia Cards: Jersey cards for Koji Chikamoto and Ryosuke Tatsumi, both of which are #'d to 200.  There's also a combination jersey card featuring both Chikamoto and Tatsumi but I'm not sure what the print run is on it.  There is definitely a patch version of the combination card that is #'d to 5.  I think there are also patch versions of the single player jersey cards but I don't know what their print run is.  There are autographed cards for players that use a landscape version of the "Cross Sunrise" cards and autographed versions of the "Cermonial First Pitch" cards - not sure of the print runs for them but I don't think they all have the same number of cards.
Parallels: 12 cards (one per team) have a "Secret" version which is a short printed photo variation.  12 other cards (also one per team) have an "Ultra Secret" version which is an even shorter printed photo variation.  72 (6 per team) of the player cards have five different facsimile autograph parallel - silver (unnumbered), gold (#'d to 100), hologram (#'d to 50), red (#'d to 25) and green (#'d to 10).  Each "Cross Sunrise" card has two parallels - one that's #'d to 100 and a "1 of 1" version.  There are three different parallels for the "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards - silver (#'d to 250), gold (#'d to 100) and holographic (#'d to 25).  The "Franchise Builder" inserts have a parallel version that's numbered to 150 while the "Young Core" cards have one numbered to 50.
Notable Rookies: None

So for the fifth year in a row BBM's 2nd Version set is following the same pattern.  In the base set there's 216 player cards (18 per team), 12 team checklists, 36 "1st Version Update" cards (3 per team) and 36 "Cross Something" cards (also 3 per team).  The only change in the base set from year to year is the number of "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards - this year there are 21 of them.

Beyond the base set there are a couple new things with this set though.  The Parallelpalooza has expanded to include three(!) separate parallels of the "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards.  BBM also decided that after three years having "Secret" versions of cards wasn't enough so they added "Ultra Secret" versions to the mix.  The "Ultra Secret" versions are (obviously) rarer than the already short-printed "Secret" versions.

Getting back to the base cards...as usual the cards look nice and as usual the photo selection is somewhat monotonous although perhaps not as bad as usual.  Here are some examples:

#481

#547

#424

#533

#480

#453

The backs of the cards have the stats through June 2:

#436

There's about 37 players who have regular cards in this set and did not appear in this year's 1st Version set.  This includes a bunch of foreign players like Kyle Martin of the Lions, Raidel Martinez and Joely Rodriguez of the Dragons, Yurisbel Gracial and Livan Moinelo of the Hawks, David Huff of the Swallows and Edwin Escobar of the Baystars.  With the 36 cards from the "1st Version Update" subset that makes 73 players that appear in this set that weren't in 1st Version.

One note - both players who have memorabilia cards in the set also have regular cards in it.  That doesn't sound like an extraordinary thing but it's the first time in three years that it's the case.

The 36 card "1st Version Update" as usual features players who for whatever reason didn't make it into this year's 1st Version set.  A lot of times these are players who were late in signing with their teams but I don't think anyone falls into that category this year.  The biggest name is probably Munetaka Murakami of the Swallows who's breaking the record for home runs by a rookie (his rookie card was last year but he is still considered a rookie in NPB due to only having 12 games with the ichi-gun squad last year).  Some of the other well known players are Kensuke Tanaka, Louis Okoye Kona Takahashi, Atushi Nohmi, Yudai Ohno and Yuya Yanagi.  Taylor Jungmann of the Giants is the only foreign player in the subset.  Here's a couple examples:

#360

#371

There was one nice change of pace in this set - the theme for the team checklists was not mascots.  I think this is the first time since 2015 that it is not mascots and it's the first time since 2012 that neither the 1st nor the 2nd Version set featured mascots as the theme of their checklists.  I guess I would categorize the theme as "Early Season Candids".  There's a mix of post game celebrations and other activities.  The mascots do show up on a couple of them but not all of them.  Here are two examples - the first one shows Shogo Akiyama celebrating his 100th home run back on May 2nd while the other shows the Dragons' mascot Doala executing a back flip - something he does at every home game:

#589

#599

As expected the set includes the second half of the "Cross Sunrise" cross set subset that started in 1st Version.  There's 36 cards numbered #CS37 to #CS72.

#CS41

As I mentioned previously, there's 21 "Ceremonial First Pitch" cards in the set.  This is the biggest this subset has been since BBM starting doing them back in 2004.  As always it features Japanese celebrities from various fields.  There's two figure skaters (Kaori Sakamoto and Mai Mihara), a ski jumper (Ryoyu Kobayashi), a football (soccer) player (Aya Sameshima) and a table tennis player (Tomokazu Harimoto) as well as two pro wrestlers (Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi).  The subset also includes Sumire Nakamura who became the youngest female professional Go player at age 10 earlier this year.  There are three "Idols" - Rika Izumi, Airi Suzuki and Suzuran Yamauchi.  Izumi previously had a "Ceremonial First Pitch" card in last year's Fusion set.  I couldn't find anything online for Nozomi Suzuki but it looks like she's a model for Asahi Beer.  Aiko Watarai is a student at the University of Tokyo who won the 2019 Miss Nippon Grand Prix.  There are also four actresses included in the subset - Charlotte Kate Fox, Minami Hamabe, Tae Kimura and Ami Yamazaki - and a member of the Cyber Japan dance group with the one word name Kanae.  There's a guy named "Pee Hayashiya" included in the subset who I think is really some sort of character played by actor Yoshihiko Satou.  And speaking of characters, our returning champion Sadako from "The Ring" movies makes her fourth appearance in one of these subsets.  She was previously in the 2012 and 2016 2nd Version sets as well as a bonus card for the 2013 2nd Version set from SCM #101 in September of 2013.  This was a tie-in for the movie Sadako that was released in Japan in May.  My favorite card in this subset is for comedian Jimon Terakado - it looks like he dressed up like Baystars legend Daisuke Miura to throw out the first pitch in Yokohama on March 31st:

#FP04

As always you can see all the cards over at Jambalaya.