Two Time First Timer

The perception of time is a funny thing.  I was 27 years old in 1991 and the 18 years between 1973 and 1991 seemed like a long time.  On the other hand, the 30 years from 1991 until now seems like no time at all.

There's a reason I bring this up and you may have a clue about what I'm thinking about because of the two years I'm mentioning here.  It had occurred to me recently that Hiromitsu Kadota was in both the first Calbee set in 1973 and the first BBM set in 1991.  I started wondering if any other players had been in both sets.

I'm pretty sure the answer is "no".  I went through the 1991 BBM set and found six other players who were active in 1973 - Hisao Niura, Yukio Yaegashi, Toru Sugiura, Yasunori Ohshima, Akinobu Mayumi and Yutaro Imae.  None of them have cards in the 1973 Calbee set.

Well, let me correct that.  None of them have cards in the first 1973 Calbee set.  The first Calbee set was a 91 card set that was issued entirely in 1973.  The second Calbee set was a 363 card set that was issued in 1973 and 1974 and is cataloged as the "1973-74" Calbee set.  The first 91 cards of the 1973-74 set are the same as the 91 cards in the 1973 set and have the same fronts although the card backs are different.  Ohshima has two cards in the 1973-74 set but he doesn't have any cards in the 1973 set.

Kadota actually has two cards in the 1973 set - #78 and #83:

1973 Calbee #78

1973 Calbee #83

I'm cheating a little here as I don't have the 1973 Kadota cards - I have the 1973-74 Kadota cards.

Kadota was 25 years old in 1973 and was in his fourth season with the Nankai Hawks.  

1991 BBM #312

In 1991 Kadota was 43 years old.  He was in his first season back with the Hawks after spending two years with the Orix Braves.  Kadota had refused to move to Fukuoka when Nankai sold the Hawks to Daiei after the 1988 season and was traded to Orix so that he could remain in Kansai, apparently so that his kids wouldn't have to change schools.  By 1991 his daughter was in high school so he felt he could rejoin the Hawks in Fukuoka.  His Wikipedia page doesn't say anything about it but I wonder if Orix moving to Kobe for 1991 was a factor in his decision as well.  He retired after the 1992 season.

I limited my search to "players" who appeared in both sets.  I should point out that if we expand the search to include 1973 players who were managers in 1991, we end up with six more names - Shozo Doi, Senichi Hoshino, Masahiko/Masaaki Mori, Katsuya Nomura, Koichi Tabuchi and Koji Yamamoto.

I've no idea how many players I should have expected to find appeared in both sets.  I did a quick look at the 1991 Topps checklist and I could only come up with five players who were also in the 1973 Topps set - Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Carlton Fisk, Rick Reuschel and Dwight Evans.  (Rich Gossage was in the 1973 set and had 1991 cards but he wasn't in the Topps set.  Rick Dempsey's had cards in 1972 and 1974 as well as 1991 but wasn't in 1973 for some reason.)