Play Ball (2021)

Another day, another idea stolen from Night Owl Cards...

I'm continuing my Opening Day tradition of doing a post showing a baseball card from the last year that each of the 12 NPB teams won the Nippon Series which was inspired by the series of posts that Night Owl Cards has been doing for a while now for MLB teams.  This is the fourth year that I've done this and the only team that's won the Series during that time is the Hawks.  Maybe it's me?

Anyway, I decided to shake things up a little and use card from BBM's Nippon Series sets for several of the years.  BBM did these sets annually from 1991 to 2012 so there's seven teams who's last (or only in one case) Series title is represented there.

The last time the HAWKS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2020 Calbee #007 (Nobuhiro Matsuda)

The last time the FIGHTERS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2016 BBM Opening #19

The last time the EAGLES won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2013 Eagles Heat #020

The last time the GIANTS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2012 BBM Nippon Series #S01

The last time the MARINES won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2010 BBM Nippon Series #S18

The last time the LIONS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2008 BBM Nippon Series #S11

The last time the DRAGONS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2007 BBM Nippon Series #S04

The last time the SWALLOWS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

2001 BBM Nippon Series #S4

The last time the BAYSTARS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

1998 BBM Nippon Series #S6

The last time the BUFFALOES* won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

1996 BBM Nippon Series #S13

The last time the TIGERS won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

1985 Calbee #185 (Kazuyuki Yamamoto)

The last time the CARP won the Nippon Series, cards looked like this:

1984 Calbee #9 (Koji Yamamoto)

*The Buffaloes were called the BlueWave in 1996

All 12 current NPB teams have won the Series at least once so there are no "Photo Not Found" teams.

I only have two Tigers cards from 1985 left that I haven't used in one of these posts.  The Tigers need to win the Series in the next two years or I'm going to have to buy some more 1985 cards.