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.
 |
| 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.)
5 comments:
Wow, definitely some cool research! I love the design of 1991 BBM for sure!
Great research. Kinda surprised that Topps didn't include Gossage in their 1991 set... or at least their Traded set.
@Fuji - it's kinda weird actually since he was in the Bowman set that year. Still waiting for him to have a Japanese card since he spent part of 1990 with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
Wow, really great bit of research there, quite interesting.
I used to live in Kobe and I doubt that Orix's move there would have affected his decision. Kobe and Osaka have a very integrated transport system so its pretty common for people who live in one to commute to the other.
Was Kadota also in the 1992 BBM set?
Also this is probably a question that has been answered before elsewhere, but it makes me wonder what is the longest stretch between a player's first card appearance and there last (while still an active player). I'd assume in MLB it would be Nolan Ryan's 26 years between his 1968 and 1994 Topps cards, but am curious about Japan.
@Sean - yes, Kadota was also in the 1992 BBM set. My guess on the longest stretch between first card and last card in Japan would be Kimiyasu Kudoh with 1982 and 2010. There might be some other candidates (Katsuya Nomura, Motonobu Tanishige, Masahiro Yamamoto) but many of them didn't have cards in their first couple years.
Post a Comment