2022 Epoch One Dragons Signature Set

Every November since 2020, Epoch has been selling "Epoch One Signature" sets for several teams.  These are sets containing anywhere from 14 to 19 cards, two of which are autographed.  The cards use the same design as that year's Epoch One cards but all the base cards feature a facsimile autograph.  Some, but not necessarily all, of the cards are essentially facsimile autograph parallels of Epoch One cards.  The sets are very limited - I didn't check all the print runs but the ones I checked were between 30 and 55 - and all the base cards are serially numbered.  These sets are not cheap - I think Epoch has consistently priced them at 30,000 yen or roughly $200.  Unlike the standard Epoch One cards, Epoch decides up front how many sets they're making, so once they're all sold, that's it.

They started out doing just four teams in 2020 but expanded to nine teams in 2021 and they've done ten teams each of the last three years - everyone but the Buffaloes and the Giants.  Since they don't do Epoch One cards for Orix, it's not a big surprise they're not doing a "Signature" set for the Buffaloes (although that doesn't stop them from doing a Carp set) but it took me a second to realize why they don't do one for the Giants - Yomiuri does not allow the card companies to sell autographed cards of their active players.

I was looking for something else on Yahoo! Japan Auctions a while back and came across the base set for the 2022 Epoch One Signature set for the Dragons for around 3000 yen ($20-ish).  The base set had 17 cards in it and obviously did not include the two autographed cards.  I was curious about it so I asked Ryan to grab the set for me.  He did and it was in the box I got from him last week.

As it turns out, I have the original Epoch One card that corresponds to the first card in the set so I decided to show both cards to illustrate the differences.  The cards are for Akira Neo making his first appearance as a pitcher after converting from being a position player:

2022 Epoch One Dragons Signature Set #PSD-01

2022 Epoch One #299

Here are the backs of the cards - you can see that the Signature Set card is /46.  Obviously all the Signature cards in the set are /46 but the weird thing is that they're not all the same number.  This one is "41/46" but there are 14 other numbers among the other 16 cards with only one number - "28/46" - appearing more than once.

Just eyeballing it, it looks like the text on the back of the cards is the same.

Here's the rest of the cards in the set:

#PSD-02 Shinnosuke Ogasawara

#PSD-03 Yuya Yanagi

#PSD-04 Yudai Ohno

#PSD-05 Daisuke Sobue

#PSD-06 Hiroto Fuku

#PSD-07 Yota Kyoda

#PSD-08 Shuhei Takahashi

#PSD-09 Dayan Viciedo

#PSD-10 Yohei Ohshima

#PSD-11 Kosuke Fukudome

#PSD-12 Kenta Bright

#PSD-13 Kosuke Ukai

#PSD-14 Taisei Ishimori

#PSD-15 Taisei Miya

#PSD-16 Mao Hoshino

#PSD-17 Yuma Fukumoto

The card of Fukumoto is for his retirement game.

The last six cards are for the Dragons' 2021 draft class/2022 rookie class.  It's kind of funny - 2021 was the only year between 2018 and 2022 that Epoch didn't have Epoch One cards for that year's Dragons' draft picks so by getting these, I've kind of filled in that gap (although they're in wrong card design - they should be in 2021's format instead of 2022's).  I believe that Ukai and Fukumoto were the only two of the Dragons' 2022 rookies to play at ichi-gun that season.

I checked all the cards against the 2022 Epoch One cards for the Dragons and what I found was that there was a corresponding Epoch One card for eleven of the cards in the set - Neo, Ogasawara, Yanagi, Ohno, Sobue, Kyoda, Takahashi, Viciedo, Ohshima, Fukudome and Ukai.  The cards for Fuku and all the rookies except Ukai are unique to the Signature set.

While it was interesting to pick up one of these to see what it was like, I don't think I need to get any more of them.  And that'd be the case even if I was still getting new sets.

2024 Topps Now NPB

Topps started doing Topps Now cards for NPB last season.  The cards cost 1243 yen apiece and were on sale for a week at a time.  That 1243 yen did not include shipping - you should expect to fork out an addition 550 yen for that.  And that's only domestic shipping - Topps will not send these cards overseas.

Given that the cards from Epoch's version of Topps Now - Epoch One - only cost 500 yen (including shipping), I have no idea why anyone would spend three times that amount for these cards.  (Oh, wait, I forgot - Topps offers the possibility of random serially numbered parallels.)  As far as I can tell, Topps has not published the print runs for any of these cards so I don't have any idea how popular they are.  (They are back for 2024 although they're now 1485 yen apiece - Epoch One cards are still only 500 yen, the same price that they've been since 2018.)

When Topps announced these last year, I decided that I wanted to get one, and only one, as an example.  I asked Ryan to pick up the one for Natsuki Takeuchi's debut with the Lions:

2024 Topps Now #6

I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised that the back of the card had a little more effort than what I'm used to from Topps' NPB cards:

Not only is there some actual text, but it's bilingual!

I was intending to get any more of these but I discovered that Topps had issued a card for Itsuki Murabayashi's performance for the Eagles in the game against the Buffaloes that I witnessed in Osaka on May 17th - and, more importantly, Epoch had not.  I didn't realize the card existed until after Topps was no longer selling it but I eventually found a copy of it on Yahoo! Japan Auctions.  I think it was around 800 yen so cheaper than from Topps - I assume the seller bought several and got a volume discount.

2024 Topps Now #31

The interesting thing about the back is that they expanded the Japanese text and did away with the English text:

The Google translation of the text is something like "In the top of the ninth inning, with the bases loaded and one out, Itsuki Murabayashi came up to bat and hot a game-winning hit to left field.  The team was tied in the eighth inning, but he quickly showed his determination to score back.  Hefulfilled his role as the second batter and contributed to the team's 5-3 victory.  In his hero interview that day, he commented, 'I became a bench player with the mindset that if we were going to score, we would score.' which excited the fans."

The text under the date simply says "Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles vs. Orix Buffaloes"

I got curious about how long Topps kept up with the bilingual backs.  As far as I can tell, card #27 was the last one with English on the back.

Hinokuni Salamanders Team Cards

Ryan always packs some unexpected things into the boxes he sends me and the box I got last week was no exception.  While digging through the cards, I discovered these four cards that I'd never seen before:

There was no player information on the card backs, just the team logo:

I didn't know anything about these cards but having a big logo certainly helped to identify the team - the Hinokuni Salamanders of the independent Kyushu Asia League.  The team plays in Kumamoto prefecture which is in the central west part of Kyushu, just south of Fukuoka prefecture.  

A little research on the team's website (including past versions via the Wayback Machine) allowed me to track down who the players are.  "Kaneda" is Kenshiro Kaneda, "Tan" is Shoya Tan, "S. Yamaguchi" is Sho Yamaguchi and "K. Yamamoto" is Koki Yamamoto.  Tan is the only one of the four who is still with the team.  Yamaguchi played for the team in both 2023 and 2024 but Kaneda and Yamamoto were only with the team in 2024 which means the cards are from 2024.

One interesting note - Sho Yamaguchi is a former member of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.  He was their second round pick in the 2017 draft and spent five seasons with the team, although he only got into nine games at the ichi-gun level, all in 2019.  He was released by the team after the 2022 season and signed on with the Salamanders which makes sense since he was born and raised in Kumamoto prefecture.  He retired as a player after last year and, according to his Wikipedia page, is working "as an employee at a fruit and vegetable wholesaler in Kumamoto".

2022 BBM Carp #C26

RIP Yutaka Ohhashi

Former Toei Flyer and Hankyu Brave shortstop Yutaka Ohhashi passed away about ten days ago at age 79.  Ohhashi had been a star in the mid-60's at Asia University, winning four Best 9 awards and setting a Tohto League record with 20 career home runs (a record since surpassed by Tadahito Iguchi).  He was the number one overall pick by Toei in the 1968 NPB draft (which apparently predates the system now in place where multiple teams can select a player in the first round and a lottery is used to determine who gets the player).

He was pretty much immediately made the Flyers' starting shortstop in his rookie season of 1969.  His defense was sound but his offense was not great.  He hit .217 in 1969, .183 in 1970 and .213 in 1971.  

He was somewhat unexpectedly dealt to the Hankyu Braves after the 1971 season in a blockbuster trade involving both teams' starting shortstops.  Toshizo Sakamoto had committed an error in the 1971 Nippon Series that contributed to the Braves losing the Series to the Giants in five games and the team apparently wanted him out of Nishinomiya.  The Braves sent Sakamoto, Koji Okamoto and Seigo Sasaki to Toei for Ohhashi and Masayuki Tanemo.  Ohhashi found some of his lost collegiate power in Kansai, reaching double digits in home runs in his first three seasons with Hankyu after never reaching that level for the Flyers.  His batting average, however, remained in the low .200's.

I think he pretty much became the dictionary definition of "good-field, no-hit" in the 70's.  NPB instituted the "Diamond Glove" award in 1972 (later renamed the "Golden Glove") and Ohhashi won the first seven Pacific League awards for shortstop.  His lack of offense didn't prevent him from winning the Best 9 awards for PL shortstop from 1972 to 1976.  As far as I can tell, the only offensive category he ever led the league in was sacrifices in 1977.  He was a three time All Star (1970, 1973 and 1975) and helped the Braves win three straight Nippon Series Championships between 1975 and 1977.

He retired after the 1982 season and spent the next 21 years coaching for the Braves (1983-90), Dragons (1991-92), Swallows (1993-2000) and Dragons again (2001-03).  He went on to coach in Taiwan for the Uni-President Lions in 2005-07 and in South Korea for the SK Wyverns in 2008.

I was a bit surprised to discover that I really only had one card of his from when he was active (not including his appearance on the Braves multi-player card from the 1975/76/77 Calbee set).  He's appeared with some regularity in BBM and Epoch OB player sets over the past 25 years although never with the Flyers - I suspect the fact that there's never been an OB Fighters set that covered time before they moved to Hokkaido has something to do with that.  Here's a handful of his cards:

1977 NST #236

2002 BBM All Time Heroes #168

2009 BBM Hankyu Memorial #27

2011 BBM Tohto 80th Memorial #10

2013 BBM The Trade Stories #06

2017 BBM Time Travel 1975 #07

2021 BBM Buffaloes History 1936-2021 #26

Card Of The Week July 27

Four* former NPB players (including three former Hanshin Tigers) have been signed by Japanese teams over the past few weeks.  The Yokohama DeNA Baystars signed former Dragons star Dayan Viciedo who had been playing in Mexico (and who I prematurely did a retirement post for two months ago) and former Tigers pitcher Shintaro Fujinami (who was just released by the Mariners).  The Tigers re-signed former closer Rafael Dolis who'd been playing for the Kochi Fighting Dogs of the Shikoku Island League for the past year and half.  Finally, former Tiger Koyo Aoyagi was released by the Phillies last week and is reportedly signing with the Swallows although there's been no formal announcement.

*There's a fifth one - Mike Ford of the Baystars - but I don't have any of his cards from last year.  His only NPB cards that I know about are Epoch One cards. UPDATE - a commenter reminded me that he had an autographed card in last year's Fusion set too.

Here are cards of all four players:

2017 Epoch Tigers #05 (Variant **)

2024 BBM 1st Version #151

2019 BBM 2nd Version #578

2024 Epoch NPB #005

A Brief History Of NPB Collectible Card Games - Part 2 - Konami

Konami did collectible game cards for NPB for the better part of 23 years.  They had two separate stints with the first one starting in 2000 and going to either 2013 or 2014 and the second stint running between 2018 and 2022.

Their first set in 2000 - called "Field Of 9" - was a doozy.  It contained 1866 base cards and was issued in six series in both 2000 and 2001 (Engel identifies the set as "2000-2001 Konami Field Of 9").  There are also dozens of parallel issues for the cards as well.  The card backs were all the same so I assume the game play involved somehow hiding your cards from your opponent.  The cards were sold in packs although I think there were "Starter Boxes" available that had 66 cards in them - I know because I had one - but I don't remember if they had packs in them or not.

Back of the Field Of 9 cards

2000 Konami Field Of 9 #FON00B-464

2000 Konami Field Of 9 #FON00T-125

2000 Konami Field Of 9 #FON00T-522 Parallel

Engel's old price guides (before he switch to the "Vintage Editions" that don't cover any sets after 1990) never mentioned it but it appears that there was a "Field Of 9" set in 2002 - or the 2000-01 set continued into 2002.  I have one Field Of 9 card with a copyright date and card number that imply that it was from 2002.  I believe this is an "SP" parallel version of the card:

2002 Konami Field Of 9 #FON2CA-1938

Konami replaced "Field Of 9" with "Prime Nine" in 2002.  All of these cards had the same backs as well.  They issued "Prime Nine" sets through 2005 although there appear to have been multiple sets most years, including versions that were sold in team packs.  The main 2002 set was sold in three series ("volumes") while the other three were essentially issued in two series (Engel separates the 2004 and 2005 editions into separate "First Edition" and "Second Edition" sets).  The really interesting thing about the "Prime Nine" cards is that I believe that they are the only CCG sets that have included memorabilia and/or autographed cards.  There were jersey cards available in packs of the 2003 set as well as the "Starter", "All Star" and "Booster" packs for the 2004 set.  There were bat cards available in the "Special Team Edition" packs in both 2003 and 2004 and the 2004 packs also included autographs.

I don't have a lot of the Prime Nine cards and most of what I have is from the 2002 set(s).  Here's some samples of what I have:

Back of the Prime Nine cards

2002 Konami Prime Nine #PN02T2-113

2002 Konami Prime Nine "Tatics" #PN02T1-TA17

2002 Konami Prime Nine #PN02T2-091 Foil Parallel

2002 Konami Prime Nine Star Card #PN02T2-ST004

2002 Konami Prime Nine VS #PN02T1-VS02

2003 Konami Prime Nine #PN03T1-181 Parallel

2003 Konami Prime Nine Total Results #PN03TA-031 Parallel

2005 Konami Prime Nine Special Team Packs #PN05TE-058

Konami introduced the "Baseball Heroes" line in 2005 and I believe they continued it until they took  several years off from from doing baseball games and cards in the mid 2010's, stopping in either 2013 or 2014.  These cards were used somehow in a video games although I'm not sure if they were online or in arcades.  The big difference with these cards is that there was player information on both sides of the cards.  There were a dizzying number of sets issued each year - "White Edition", "Black Edition", "Power Up Version" and "Opening Version" were some examples - and after a while it got hard to keep track of them.  

During this time period, Konami also released cards under the name "Powerful Baseball" and "Baseball All Star's" (yes, "Star's" - that's not a typo) but I don't know if there was an associated game with these sets.

What follows here are a bunch of cards I have from various Konami sets from 2005 to 2012.  I think I'm only sharing one card from each set that I have represented in my collection but, as I've mentioned before, these sets get very confusing.  I'm pretty sure some of these are insert cards.  I'm also unsure of some of the set names after 2007 (where Engel's last non-vintage guide left off):

2005 Konami Baseball Heroes New Black Edition #C05B051

2005 Konami Baseball Heroes Old Black Edition #B05B093

2005 Konami Baseball Heroes Old White Edition #B05W113

2006 Konami Powerful Baseball #P06-034

2006 Konami Baseball Heroes 2 Black Edition #B06B147

2006 Konami Baseball Heroes 2 White Edition #B06W160

2007 Konami Baseball Heroes 3 Black Edition #B07B064

2007 Konami Baseball Heroes 3 White Edition #B07W009

2007 Konami Baseball Heroes 3 Highlights #B07H006

2008 Konami Baseball Heroes Black Edition #B08B046

2008 Konami Baseball Heroes White Edition #B08W167

2008 Konami Baseball Heroes Power Up Version #C08S017

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes Black Edition #B09B082

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes Power Up Version #C09B049

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes White Edition #B09W155

2010 Konami Baseball Heroes Black Edition #B10RB065

2011 Konami Baseball Heroes Black Edition #B11RB135

2011 Konami Baseball Heroes White Edition #B11RW117

2011 Konami Baseball Heroes Power Up Version #D11RB113

2011 Konami Baseball Heroes Draft #B11DR010

2011 Konami Baseball All Star's #BA1101-062

2012 Konami Baseball Heroes Black Edition #B12RB018

2012 Konami Baseball Heroes White Edition #B12RW041

It's probably pretty obvious that I'm not a big fan of Konami's cards but there's one major exception - the 2009 Baseball Heroes WBC Version set.  I've said before that this was the best set ever done for a World Baseball Classic.  It had a 253 card base set featuring the full rosters of the four semi-finalist teams (Japan, South Korea, the United States and Venezuela) and 12 players from each of the other twelve teams except Panama which only had eight.  The set also featured two 12 card insert sets - "All Tournament Team" and "Special" (which featured three players from each of the semi-finalist teams).

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes WBC Version #W09R095

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes WBC Version Special #W09S001

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes WBC Version All Tournament Team #W09A011

Konami also issued a much smaller set for the 2013 WBC but this was only an 11 card insert set featuring players from the Japanese team.  I'm not entirely sure but I think this was associated with the "Extra Version" set (based on what's on the cards).  These are remarkably rare - I didn't even know they existed until 2022, some nine years after they were published.

2013 Konami Samurai Japan #B13SJ004

After a hiatus of a couple years, Konami returned to the baseball game card game in 2018 with their "Baseball Collection" cards.  These cards were both used in a baseball video game found in arcades as well as being dispensed by the game as reward for either playing or winning it.  Konami's web page about the game is long gone but their videos about it are still around - this post of mine has two of them.

There was basically one set released each year in multiple series.  It looks like they'd be issued from March of one year until February of the following year.  The sets had a LOT of cards - my analysis of the checklist for the 2021 set implied that there were on the order of 1600+ cards issued between March of 2021 and February of 2022 although I might not have accounted for duplicate listings at Suruga-ya.
The player cards themselves came in several different varieties - "N", "R", "SR" and "P" which I think meant "Normal", "Rare", "Super Rare" and "Premium".  I'm not sure if each player had all four types.

Konami did the "Baseball Collection" cards for five years, ending in 2022.  Here's some sample cards from each year.  I'm showing one of each variety for each year although I only have all four varieties for two of the five years:

2018 Konami Baseball Collection #201810-N-G006-00

2018 Konami Baseball Collection #201810-R-C051-00

2019 Konami Baseball Collection #201900-N-B037-00

2019 Konami Baseball Collection #201900-R-G018-00

2019 Konami Baseball Collection #201910-SR-E069-00

2019 Konami Baseball Collection #2019C9-P-L060-00

2020 Konami Baseball Collection #202000-N-DB021-00

2020 Konami Baseball Collection #202000-R-F008-00

2021 Konami Baseball Collection #202100-N-DB29-00

2021 Konami Baseball Collection #202116-R-M017-00

2022 Konami Baseball Collection #202200-N-DB063-00

2022 Konami Baseball Collection #202200-R-S055-00

2022 Konami Baseball Collection #2022C4-SR-S005-00

2022 Konami Baseball Collection #2022C0-P-DB006-00