In December of 2002, the Hanshin Tigers made an announcement. After spending the previous six seasons in MLB, Hideki Irabu would be returning to Japan and NPB for the 2003 season.
Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino had originally intended to use Irabu as his closer but Irabu convinced him to put him in the starting rotation. It looked like a great move when the former Orion went 9-2 in the first half of the season and was one of the Central League's Monthly MVP in May. He made the All Star team for the fourth time in his career (and first time since 1996, his last season with Lotte before signing with the Yankees). He faltered some in the second half of the season, going 4-6, but his overall record was 13-8 with an ERA of 3.85. He made 27 starts and threw 173 innings, striking out 164 while walking only 47. The Tigers won the Central League pennant that year, their first one since their first Nippon Series championship in 1985. His season ended on a sour note, however, as he was slapped around pretty well by the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in two starts in the Nippon Series. He gave up five runs in three innings (which included a solo home run by Kenji Johjima) in Game 2 and three runs in two innings (although I think only two of those were earned - both on a two run homer by Tadahito Iguchi) in Game 6. He lost both games and the Tigers lost the Series in seven games. Still, it had been a pretty good season for the 34 year old after several up-and-down seasons in MLB.
2004, however, was a disaster for him. His performance against Daiei in the previous year's Series had revealed a couple of his weaknesses - lack of mobility in defending his position and an inability to hold runners on - and the other teams took advantage of it. Hoshino had stepped down as manager due to health issues and new manager Akinobu Okada had a very short leash for Irabu. He only made three starts with the top team, going 0-2 while only pitching 11 innings. His ERA was a robust 13.11. The Tigers released him at the end of the season and he announced his retirement due to a chronic knee issue shortly afterward. He made a comeback with two independent league teams in 2009 - the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League and the Kochi Fighting Dogs of the Shikoku Island League - but that was the end of his playing days. He tragically took his own life in 2011.
With that background, I want to talk about the baseball cards issued for Irabu during his two years with Hanshin because they're a bit odd. Despite signing with the Tigers in plenty of time before training camp, he does not appear in the 2003 BBM 1st Version set. Nor does he appear in the 2nd Version set. Nor does he appear in BBM's "comprehensive" team set for the Tigers (which is not quite "comprehensive" without him in it). He's also not in any Calbee set for 2003.
What's weird is that he does appear in some BBM card sets for 2003. He's got five cards across four different sets. His first appearance is in BBM's All Star set - what was then an annual set that included cards of everyone who made the All Star teams. He appears in two different box sets celebrating the Tigers championship run - one card in the "Victory Road Prologue" set and two cards in the "Victory Road" set. His last 2003 card was in BBM's Nippon Series set - another then-annual set that featured all the players who appeared in each year's Nippon Series. Here's all five of these cards (I don't have one of the "Victory Road" cards so I used an image of it I found on the internet):
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| 2003 BBM All Stars #A19 |
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| 2003 BBM Victory Road Prologue #14 |
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| 2003 BBM Victory Road #17 |
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| 2003 BBM Victory Road #49 |
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| 2003 BBM Nippon Series #33 |
There were at least two oddball Tigers sets issued in 2003 that are listed in the older editions of Gary Engel's "Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide". Irabu is not in either of them. The "Top Foods Hanshin Tigers Championship" set (JMC 516) appears to be a "comprehensive" team set in that it contains cards for all the players on the 70 man roster (except Irabu) plus the coaching staff. The "Glico Chocolate Hanshin Tigers 1st Half Photo" set features highlights of the first half of the Tigers' season. Both of these sets are ones that you'd expect Irabu to appear in but he doesn't.
Things improved a little bit in 2004. He still didn't appear in the 1st Version set but he had two cards in the base set for the BBM Tigers set (and had a "Tigers Nine" insert card as well). He also appeared in a subset in the 2004 Calbee Series One set that celebrated the monthly MVPs for the previous year. Those would be his only 2004 cards, however. I think being banished to the farm team after only three starts prevented him from appearing in BBM's 2nd Version set or any of the later Calbee sets. Here's his 2004 cards (with the exception of the insert card):
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| 2004 Calbee Series One #M-07 |
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| 2004 BBM Tigers #T30 |
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| 2004 BBM Tigers #T83 |
This is unusual but not completely unheard of. Cuban legend Omar Linares spent three seasons with the Chunichi Dragons from 2002 to 2004 but almost all his NPB baseball cards are from 2004. I'm not sure if there's another Japanese player of significance, however, who would have been expected to appear in BBM flagship sets when he was an active player but didn't.
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