Non-Flagship All Stars

Every year from 1991 to 2012 BBM published an annual box set for that season's All Star teams.  For the first 20 years or so it would be published in mid-July, just in time for the games but the last two or three years it was published in mid-August so that it could feature photos taken from the games.  The set always contained the full roster of players (at least as of press time) along with the managers and coaches (who were always managers of teams other than the previous year's Nippon Series managers).

I had noticed recently when researching the Carp's US minor leaguers that Satoshi Iriki (who had been traded for Hiroyuki Satoh) had a card in BBM's All Star set in 2001 but didn't have a card in that year's flagship set.  I thought that was odd - surely a player who would be good enough to make an All Star team would almost always be good enough for BBM to include in their flagship set - especially in the years when 40 of the players on each team's 70 man roster were in the set.  I figured this had to be a very rare occurrence.

I sat down the other night to do some research and discovered that it's actually a lot more common than I thought.  In fact the 2001 All Star set alone had three players who didn't appear in the 2001 BBM flagship set.  I eventually discovered 17 players and four coaches who had All Star cards in a particular year but not a BBM flagship set card.  14 of the 22 All Star sets contained at least one of these players or coaches.  I decided to do some investigation on why these guys weren't in the flagship sets so here's the results of that:

1992 BBM All Stars #A17

Hiromoto "Dave" Ohkubo had spent over seven years with the Seibu Lions, mostly on their farm team, before being traded to the Yomiuri Giants in May of 1992 for Takayoshi Nakao.  Given a chance to start for the first time in his career, he went on a tear, hitting .300 with 12 home runs in the two months before the All Star break.  He won the Monthly MVP award for May and the Giants won every game that he homered in. 

1995 BBM All Stars #A8

 Robinson Checo was a product of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's Dominican Academy.  He spent two seasons playing on the Carp's farm team in Japan before being released.  He signed on with the CPBL's China Trust Eagles in 1994 before returning to the Carp for the 1995 season.  He made his NPB debut in mid-April and threw a shutout against the Tigers.  He nearly no-hit the Tigers a month later, giving up a double to Teruyoshi Kuji with two outs in the ninth.  He ended up going 15-8 with a 2.74 ERA that year.  I'm guessing that he joined the Carp after the 1995 BBM set went to press but I don't know that for sure.  He is unique in that he is the only player ever on the official 70 man roster to wear a three digit number (106).

1995 BBM All Stars #A2

The Chunichi Dragons had a poor season in 1995, ultimately finishing in fifth place with a 50-80 record after having finished second in 1994.  Manager Morimichi Takagi resigned at the beginning of June and Sadayuki Tokutake was made interim manager.  Since the coaches for the Central League All Star team that year were the managers of the second and third place teams the previous year, Tokutake appears in the All Star set.  This is the only card depicting him as Dragons manager as he was dismissed on July 23rd, two days before the first All Star game, and replaced with Ikuo Shimano.  It looks like hitting coach Tatsuhiko Kimata was actually the coach for the Central League squad in the All Star games.  Shimano was let go at the end of the season when the Dragons brought back Senichi Hoshino for his second stint as Dragons manager.

1996 BBM All Stars #A18

Balvino Galvez spent 12 seasons mostly in the minors for the Dodgers,  Tigers, Twins, Expos, Yankees and Cubs between 1982 and 1993.  He got into 10 games with the major league Dodgers in 1986, going 0-1 with a 3.92 ERA.  He came to Japan in early 1996 after spending two seasons with the Brother Elephants of the CPBL and signed a contract with the Yomiuri Giants on February 22 which I assume is after that year's flagship set went to press.  Galvez went 16-5 with a 2.55 ERA that year, tying for the league lead in victories with his teammate Masaki Saitoh.  Galvez pitched in the Nippon Series that year and so appears in BBM's Nippon Series set as well.  (Given that the Nippon Series sets feature all the players who appear in the Series it is not that unusual for a player to appear in the Nippon Series box set but not appear in the flagship set.)

1996 BBM All Stars #A15

Kazuya Tabata had been a tenth round pick of the Hawks in the 1992 draft.  He was dealt to the Swallows along with Shinichi Satoh for Shikato Yanagita and Ryo Kawano.  This was a minor enough deal that out of the four players involved only Yanagita had a card in the 1996 BBM flagship set.  The Swallows put him in the starting rotation and, given an opportunity to play regularly for the first time, he pitched quite well after a slow start.  He was named to the All Star team on the recommendation of his manager, Katsuya Nomura.  He ended up going 12-12 with a 3.51 ERA for the season.

1997 BBM All Stars #A21

Isao Kohda had spent 11 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants before being traded to the Kintetsu Buffaloes for Hideyuki Awano after the 1994 season.  He spent almost the entire 1996 season with the Buffaloes farm team, going just 0-3 with a 9.64 ERA in four games (although he led the Western League in both wins and ERA) so you could have been forgiven if you didn't think a 31 year old pitcher coming off a season like that would be expected to contribute much the following year.  But Kohda made 18 starts with the ichi-gun team in 1997, going 9-4 with a 3.69 ERA in 18 starts and obviously pitching well enough to be picked for the All Star team for the first and only time in his career.

1998 BBM All Stars #A45

Like Galvez, Edwin Hurtado signed with his first NPB team after the BBM set that year had gone to press.  He had made 43 appearances in the majors for Toronto and Seattle before making his way to Japan, going 8-9 with a 6.67 ERA.  He made a couple starts for Orix in 1998 but he spent most of season in the bullpen, going 8-5 with a 3.74 ERA and seven saves. 

1998 BBM All Stars #A51

Tatsuji Nishimura had been a rotation staple for the Swallows in the early 90's but his career hit a snag when he was suspended for five games after beaning Giants outfielder Dan Gladden in the head in May of 1994 (which brought about the "automatic ejection for a dangerous pitch" rule).  The Swallows traded him to Kintetsu for Masato Yoshii just before the 1995 season and after his first season the Buffaloes effectively buried him on their farm team for two seasons.  He only got into four games with the top team in 1996, going 0-1 with a 7.62 ERA and he spent all of 1997 with the ni-gun squad before being released.  The Hawks picked him up in the spring of 1998 and he made their starting rotation, going 10-10 with a 3.36 ERA and winning the Comeback Player Of The Year award.

1999 BBM All Stars #A54

Rod Pedraza had spent eight years kicking around the minor league organizations for the Expos, Rockies and Rangers and also spent a season with the Winnipeg Gold Eyes of the independent Northern League before signing with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks shortly after Opening Day in 1999.  Daiei had originally intended to use him as a starter but he ended up in the bullpen instead and by teh middle of May he had taken the closer role away from Tsutomu Yamada.  He ended up going 3-1 with 27 saves and an ERA of 1.98 and helped lead the Hawks to their first pennant in 26 years and their first Nippon Series title in 35 years (and like Galvez had a card in the Nippon Series set).  He won the Monthly MVP award for June that year which probably helped him get selected for the All Star team.

2000 BBM All Stars #A15

Eddie Gaillard went to spring training with the Cincinnati Reds in 2000 after having spent the previous seven seasons in the Tiger and Devil Ray organizations.  The Reds released him on April 4th and he signed on with the Dragons four days later.  The Dragons made him their closer and he rewarded them with a league leading 35 saves to go with a 2.68 ERA and 52 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 47 innings pitched.

2000 BBM All Stars #A58

Hiroki Yamamura had been the Hanshin Tigers top pick in the 1994 draft but only made 15 ichi-gun appearances in his five years with the organization.  He suffered from a nervous disorder that kept him on the farm team for all of 1999 and was released after the season.  The Buffaloes picked him up during training camp the following year (he signed with them on February 29th, after BBM's flagship set went to press) and he ended up in the starting rotation for the team.  Like Tabata, he made the most of his first opportunity to play regularly and while his numbers for the season look mediocre (he went 6-9 with a 5.01 ERA), they obviously were good enough for him to be picked for the All Star team for the first and only time in his career.

2001 BBM All Stars #A19

Satoshi Iriki had spent 10 years playing for the Buffaloes, Carp and Giants but spent all of 2000 with Yomiuri's farm team.  They released him after the season and he signed on with the Yakult Swallows for the 2001 season.  He put together his best season ever, winning 8 games by the All Star break and getting named the Monthly MVP for June.  He ultimately went 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA for the full season and helped the Swallows win the Nippon Series (which means he also has a Nippon Series card from that year).

2001 BBM All Stars #A15

Yusaku Iriki is Satoshi's younger brother.  The two players were teammates on the Giants from 1999 to 2000.  He spent most of 2000 on the farm team with his brother, only getting into seven games with the ichi-gun team.  Like his brother though, he had the best season of his career in 2001, going 13-4 with a 3.71 ERA.  He started Game One of the All Star series and was relieved by his brother in the third inning.

2001 BBM All Stars #A40

Koki Morita had been a steady pitcher for Yokohama in the first half of the 1990's, mostly out of the bullpen, before being traded to the Buffaloes after the 1997 season for Hitoshi Nakane.  He missed most of the 1999 and 2000 seasons after having surgery for a brain tumor.  He returned full time in 2001 and was selected to the All Star team by fan voting.  It was a sentimental pick as he had an ERA of 7.06 that season but it wasn't just the fans being sentimental as he won the Comeback Player Of The Year award that season as well.  He also pitched in the Nippon Series that year (and so also has a card in that set).  He retired after the following season and suffered recurrences of the tumor in the years afterward.  Tragically he passed away from it in 2015.

2001 was the last year that BBM issued their flagship set as one monolithic set each April.  Starting in 2002 BBM would issue a set called 1st Version in April along with a second set called (obviously) 2nd Version in August.  As you would expect, this would greatly cut down on the number of players appearing in the All Star set but not appearing in that year's flagship sets.  After there were 13 such players in the 11 All Star sets between 1991 and 2001, there would be only four in the 11 sets between 2002 and 2012.

2003 BBM All Stars #A19

Hideki Irabu returned to Japan in time for the 2003 season after having spent seven years in the majors.  He had signed with the Tigers in December of 2002 so I actually have no idea why he did not appear in either the 1st or 2nd Version sets in 2003.  He didn't appear in the BBM Tigers "comprehensive" team set that year either although he was in the "Victory Road" boxed sets celebrating the team's first Central League Pennant in 18 years as well as the Nippon Series box set.  He went 9-2 over the first half of the 2003 season and was named the Monthly MVP for May, all of which helped him get selected for the All Star team.  Oddly enough he didn't appear in either flagship set in 2004 (his last active season in NPB) either although he had a card in the Tigers' team set.

2005 BBM All Stars #A18

I'll almost as baffled over why Shintaro Yoshitake wasn't in either the 1st or 2nd Version set in 2005 as I was with Irabu.  Yoshitake had been with the Hawks since they drafted him in the fourth round of the 1993 draft.  He'd spent most of 2004 with the farm team, only getting into 13 games but posting an ERA of 1.83.  He was a great middle reliever for the Hawks in 2005, getting into 61 games and recording 32 holds with an ERA of 3.12.  He set an NPB record by getting holds in eight consecutive games in June which I'm sure helped him get an All Star roster spot but apparently came too late to get him into the 2nd Version set.

2007 BBM All Stars #A03

2008 BBM All Stars #A34

Koji Akiyama was the head coach of the Hawks in 2007 and 2008 and was considered the heir apparent to manager Sadaharu Oh who'd been running the team since 1995.  Oh decided to not participate in the All Star games in both 2007 and 2008 due to declining health (he had been treated for stomach cancer late in the 2006 season) and Akiyama filled in for him.  Oh retired after the 2008 season and, as expected, Akiyama succeeded him as manager.

2009 BBM All Stars #A40

Yudai Kawai came out of nowhere to have a career year in 2009.  He'd only made 18 appearances in his four seasons with the Dragons before then but he was promoted from the farm team on April 21st and proceeded to win his first 11 decisions.  He won four games in June which got him the Monthly MVP award and probably cemented his selection for the All Star game.  He ended the season with an 11-5 record (which means he lost five straight decisions after his 11 wins) and a 3.78 ERA.

2010 BBM All Stars #A07

Yuya Kubo began his career with the Giants as a starter but they moved him to the bullpen in 2005.  He spent the bulk of the 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons on the farm, only appearing in 26 total games with the ichi-gun team in those three years.  But in 2010 he set a Giants team record by appearing in 79 games, going 8-1 with a 2.77 ERA.  Obviously he had pitched well enough by early July to get named to the All Star team.

2010 BBM All Stars #A03

In 2009 the Tokyo Yakult Swallows under manager Shigeru Takada finished in third place which (among other things like making the playoffs) earned Takada a coaching slot on the 2010 Central League All Star team.  2010 did not go as well for the Takada and the Swallows.  The team fell to last place and at one point lost nine consecutive games.  Takada stepped down as manager on May 26th with a record of 13-32-1 and was replaced by head coach Junji Ogawa.  As a result Ogawa filled the coaching slot at the All Star game.