Time for another one of my Opening Day traditions - which is the oldest BBM flagship set to have a currently active NPB player (where "active" is a very relative term)?
For the second year in a row, the oldest set is the 2002 one. All three 2002 rookies who were active last year - Takumi Kuriyama, Takeya Nakamura and Masanori Ishikawa - are on NPB rosters again this year. Kuriyama and Nakamura are each 43 while Ishikawa is 46. All three have spent their entire careers with the same teams that took them in the 2001 NPB draft. Here are their cards from the 2002 BBM 1st and 2nd Version sets (only Ishikawa appeared in both sets):
 |
| 2002 BBM 1st Version #269 |
 |
| 2002 BBM 1st Version #268 |
 |
| 2002 BBM 1st Version #24 |
 |
| 2002 BBM 2nd Version #442 |
I, of course, need to mention that there's one former NPB player who's still active in one of Japan's independent leagues. 44 year old Munenori Kawasaki will be suiting up for his seventh season with the Tochigi Golden Braves of the independent Baseball Challenge League. Kawasaki was drafted by the then-Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in 1999 so his rookie card is in the 2000 BBM set:
 |
| 2000 BBM #291 |
No comments:
Post a Comment