Sports Graphic Number Box Breaks

Pete, the reader who sent me information on breaks for a couple boxes of this year's BBM Genesis set, also sent me information and pictures for a couple boxes of sets from Sports Graphic Number.

Sports Graphic Number is a weekly sports magazine that has published several "single player" sets in the past few years.  They did sets for Masahiro Tanaka and Hiroyuki Nakajima last year, a set for Kenta Maeda earlier this year and a forthcoming Tomonori Maeda set.  The big difference I see between BBM's "single player" sets and Sports Graphic's Number's is that BBM's tend to be biographical - there will usually be cards of the player when he was a kid, when he was in high school and college, when he was rookie, etc.  Sports Graphic Number's just have many pictures of the player from the time that the set came out.  The Sports Graphic Number sets are also pack based sets while BBM's are box sets.

Pete is a fan of both Kenta Maeda and Masahiro Tanaka so he picked up one box of each of their respective sets from Niki via Rakuten Global Market.  He paid roughly $51 for the Tanaka box and $33 for the Maeda box (on sale).  He also paid $24 for the EMS shipping for these two boxes plus his second Genesis box.

Tanaka box

We'll start with the Tanaka set since it came out first.  The set contains 90 base set cards along with 18 "special" cards and 9 "insert" cards.  The 18 "special" cards are all foil signature cards - looks like there's two nine card subsets with a distinct design each.  The 9 "insert" cards commemorate his winning the 2011 Sawamura Award.  In addition, there are various photo, autograph, patch and jersey cards available - the possibilities are shown on the back of the box:

Back Of Tanaka box

The box contains ten packs of seven cards.  Each pack contains one of either the "special" or "insert" cards along with six of the base cards.  I'm not positive but I think if you get one of the memorabilia cards in a pack, it replaces one of the base cards in the pack.  So the box will contain 70 cards - 60 base cards (or possibly a memorabilia card) and 10 "special" or "insert" cards.

Opened box and packs

On the plus side, Pete got no doubles in his box - he got 60 unique base set cards and 10 unique "special" or "insert" cards.  On the minus side, he didn't get any memorabilia cards.

Here's some pictures of the base cards:

#87

#55

#25

Glancing through the scans at Jambalaya, it looks like some of the card fronts have pictures split across them.  Pete included some pictures of where the backs made up photos (although he doesn't necessarily have all the cards needed):

Here are the fronts and backs for the "special" and "insert" cards.  I wonder if the backs of the "special" cards form a sequence of some sort - it looks like there's some sort of graphic showing where the card is supposed to be in a nine card sheet.

Front Of #SP01

Back Of #SP01

Front of #SP18

Back of #SP18

Front of Insert #01

Back of Insert #01

The box also included a separate card under the packs called a "Privilege Card".  It looks like there are six possible varieties of this card including one that is "gold" and one that is "silver".  I don't know if these are some sort of metallic card or if it's a cardboard card with gold or silver on the front.  Pete didn't get one of those, he got card #03.  I don't know why one of them is numbered "D" instead of a number.

Privilege Card #03 Front

Privilege Card #03 Back

While Pete did not get a memorabilia card in this box, he did pick up a jersey card from the set off Ebay.  It's numbered 15 of 68:

Maeda Box

The Maeda set has 81 base cards to go with 18 "special" cards.  Like the Tanaka set, the 18 "special" cards are foil signature cards that are broken into two nine card subsets with a different design each.  There are a wide variety of memorabilia cards available - once again they are all shown on the bottom of the box:

Maeda Box Back

The packs are the same as the Tanaka packs - the box contains 10 packs of seven cards.  Each pack contains a "special" card along with six base cards.  If there's a memorabilia card in the pack, it appears to take the place of one of the base cards.

Open box with packs

Once again, Pete got no doubles in the box.  Even better, this time he pulled a memorabilia card - an undershirt card, numbered #56 of 82:

Front Of Undershirt Card

Back Of Undershirt Card

With the memorabilia card, Pete got 59 unique cards for the base set and 10 unique "special" cards.  Here's a number of pictures of the base cards.  As was the case with the Tanaka cards, there are card fronts that have pictures split across them and card backs that form pictures as well when put in 9 card sheets in order:

#RG81

Back of Card #RG01

#RG03

#RG10

#RG47

Backs of #RG01 - #RG09

Backs of #RG37 - #RG45

Backs of #RG55 - #RG63

#RG38 & #RG39

Here are two of the "special" cards showing the different designs:

#SP09

#SP15

Again just like the Tanaka box the Maeda box included a "privilege" card under the packs.  It looks like there's four possible cards, one of which is numbered with the letter "A" for some reason.  No gold or silver cards this time around though.  Pete got card #02:

Privilege Card #02 front

Privilege Card #02 back

Pete's box also included a "reservation" card.  Neither of us is sure what this is, but Pete thinks it was an exclusive card with Niki intended for people who had pre-ordered the box.  Pete isn't one of those people but he thinks Niki might have had extras.  I don't know if there are multiple versions of the reservation card or not, although there is a letter "D" on the card which may indicate there are at least cards A, B and C as well.  Since it's a Niki exlusive, Jambalaya doesn't have these listed.

Front of Reservation Card

Back of Reservation Card

Once again, my thanks to Pete for getting the boxes and sharing the pictures and information about them.

NPB Players in the Australian Baseball League

The 2013-14 Australian Baseball League season kicked off last week and once again there are a handful of NPB players who will be playing in it.  It looks like the Saitama Seibu Lions are the only team sending players this year and they're actually only sending four - Makoto Aiuchi, Komei Fujisawa, Toshihiro Iwao and Yasuhiro Tanaka.   All four will be playing for the Melbourne Aces.

2013 BBM 2nd Version #432

Aiuchi appears to have only had three cards so far.  He was drafted by the Lions last year but his signing got delayed until March due to some legal issues.  He has cards in this year's 2nd Version set, the Lions team set and the recently released "Young Lions" box set, all from BBM.

2012 BBM Rookie Edition #024

Fujisawa also appears to only have a limited number of cards.  He was drafted by Seibu in the 2012 draft so he has a card in the 2012 BBM Rookie Edition set.  He also appears in both the 2012 and 2013 BBM Lions sets as well as the "14 Stars" (or "RY Stars") "Lions Rookies and Young Stars" set put out by someone last summer.

2010 BBM 2nd Version #690

Iwao has been around a little longer and so has more cards that the previous two players.  He was a 2010 draft pick of the Lions and shows up in the 2010 Rookie Edition set from BBM as well as both the 1st and 2nd Version sets that year.  He's made the Lions BBM team set each year from 2010 to 2013 as well as this year's "Young Lions" box set.  He also appears in the non-BBM "Lions Rookies and Young Stars" box set from this past summer.

2006 BBM 1st Version #105

Tanaka has been toiling for the Lions ni-gun team for a while now.  He was drafted by the Lions back in 2006.  He's in both the 2006 BBM Rookie Edition and 1st Version sets but he hasn't appeared in a flagship set since.  He's been in the Lions BBM team set each year since 2006 and showed up in game cards for both Konami's Baseball Heroes and Bandai's Owners League sets in 2010.

I haven't gotten this to actually work yet, but I believe that you can watch ABL games for free on their streaming website.  I tried unsuccessfully to get this to work on my iPad last Friday morning but it may just not be set up for mobile devices.

Speaking of the Australian Baseball League, I just discovered that there were actually official baseball cards for the teams released last year.  A company called Select Australia put out a 12 card team set for each of the six teams.  I have no idea how to go about getting these cards from the States as Select Australia appears to only ship to Australia and New Zealand and I'm not sure if the cards are listed in any of the team's online shops (I only checked a couple).  The OZ Cards blog has a series of posts showing some of the cards and giving a checklist for each team.

UPDATE:  I am not paying close enough attention to what's going on.  There was an announcement made last week that the 2013-14 ABL cards were being released.  OZ Cards has the details here - the cards are being done by a company called Dingo Trading Cards.  A set for each team is being issued as a three eight card packs.  The first packs have just been released, the second packs will be released on December 1 and the last packs will be released on January 1.  Each pack is $5.  In addition, there's a 40 card set for last year's ABL Champion Canberra Cavalry.  Sets can be ordered from the ABL's online store and they will ship to the US.  Just for grins I put together an order for the Canberra Cavalry championship set - the set was $30 but when the Australian tax was taken off because it was an international order it went down to $27.27.  International shipping was $26.10.  So you can get them, but it'll run you.  Note that the ABL Store has an incorrect listing for the new team sets - they are 8 card packs not 3 card packs.  OZ Cards is promising to do checklists and reviews so keep checking with them for more details.  With $5 for each team pack and $30 for the Cavalry set, the full set should end up being $120 (minus the Australian tax if you're overseas).  I personally would recommend waiting until January and ordering everything in one shot to save on shipping (if that isn't obvious).

Mr. Giants - Victory Flag

1962 Doyusha JCM55

I've been spending a lot of time lately doing kanji-based searches in YouTube to see what I can find.  I came across the following clip that contains seven minutes of highlights of Games Five through Seven of the 1963 Nippon Series between the Nishitetsu Lions and the Yomiuri Giants:

Game Five was played at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo and the other two games were played at Heiwadai Stadium in Fukuoka.  Shigeo Nagashima is featured prominently in the clip (as he was MVP of the Series - spoiler alert - the Giants won) as is Sadaharu Oh.  Other players who are fairly obvious are Isao Shibata of the Giants and Futoshi Nakanishi and Kazuhisa Inao of the Lions.

BTW - Game Seven was played 50 years ago today.  Shigeo Nagashima was 27 years old.  Sadaharu Oh was 23(!).

The footage is a little odd.  Most of the game action appears to have been filmed with only one camera - high in the stands on the first base side at both ballparks.  After doing a little more searching, I discovered that this sequence is actually part of a movie about Nagashima made by Toho Studios called "Misutan Jyaiamatsu - Shori No Hata" or "Mr. Giants - Victory Flag".  According to the book The Toho Studios Story, the film was released on February 14, 1964 and is "apparently a baseball drama starring real-life stars Nagashima (the Babe Ruth of Japanese baseball) and teammate Oh - known collectively as ON - from the Yomiuri Giants."

A little more searching on YouTube revealed a multitude of clips from the movie, some more interesting than others.  Without speaking Japanese, it's difficult to figure out what the plot is - if the film actually has a plot.  There's a couple scenes where Nagashima appears to be having issues with his hitting but I don't know if that's a major plot element or not.

I picked out a handful of scenes that I thought were interesting - you can check the search results yourself to see some more.

Here's the opening credits:




Nagashima consults manager Tetsuharu Kawakami about his slump (I actually meant to include this with the memorial post I did on Kawakami last week):





This may be my favorite scene - Nagashima and Oh check their batting forms in the mirror:





Tatsuro Hirooka (#2), Isao Shibata (#12), Motoshi Fujita (#18) and Oh joke in the locker room:





Hirooka, Shibata, Oh and Nagashima coming off the field:




Giants Victory reception:

Final 2013 Sets?

The 2013 NPB season wrapped up today but it looks like there's still a couple more sets due out this year.  BBM's website listed a couple new ones last week and there's apparently a couple non-BBM ones coming soon as well.

- BBM is putting out two box sets to celebrate the careers of Shinya Miyamoto and Shinjiro Hiyama.  Both sets are 28 cards - 27 cards in the base set plus a "special" card - Miyamoto has possible autograph or photo cards, Hiyama has possible jersey or autograph cards.  The Miyamoto set has three subsets - 9 cards for Miyamoto's career, 15 cards for other Swallows players (I think it's the 2013 team but might be previous teammates) and 3 cards for "last year allies" which I'm not sure what are - maybe for Atsunori Inaba who reached 2000 hits last year just like Miyamoto did.  Hiyama's subsets are 22 cards for his career and five cards for "Episodes of Hiyama".  Both sets will be out in late November.

- I'm not sure who is publishing this set but there's a "Season Summary 2013" set coming out for the Yokohama DeNA Baystars.  This appears to be a box set containing 31 cards - 30 base set cards plus one autograph card.  There appear to be a wide variety of the autograph cards - some commemorate milestones reached in 2013 (Ramirez and Nakamura reaching 2000 hits) while others are for the 1998 Baystars Nippon Series championship.  Not sure if the autographs are all authentic or if some are facsimile.  The set will be released at the end of November.

- Sports Graphic Number magazine is putting out a set commemorating Tomonori Maeda's career.  This is a packed based set with a 90 card base set, 18 insert cards and (I think) possible autograph and jersey cards.  It looks like the set actually will not hit the shelves until January.

Card Of The Week November 3

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles beat the Giants today 3-0 in Game Seven of this year's Nippon Series, clinching the Eagles' first ever Championship.  All 12 NPB teams have now won at least one Nippon Series.  The Eagles entered NPB in 2005 as an expansion team, replacing the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes who had merged with the Orix Blue Wave.  Ironically, Kintetsu had never won a Nippon Series during their 55 years of existence.

Akihisa Makida hit a home run in the fourth in today's game, increasing the Eagles lead from 2-0 to the final 3-0 score.  Makida is one of eight players who had been with the Eagles in their first season who were still active in either NPB or MLB in 2013 (according to a tweet by Jim Allen).  The others are Hisashi Iwakuma (Mariners), Takeshi Yamasaki (Dragons), Akihito Fujii (Hanshin Tigers), Katsuhiko Saka (Hanshin Tigers), Shinichiro Koyama (Eagles), Yosuke Takasu (Eagles) and Toshiya Nakashima (Eagles).  (Saka and Nakashima only played at the ni-gun level in 2005.)

Makida had been drafted in the fifth round of the 2001 draft by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.  His rookie card was from the 2001 BBM set (#508):

2013 BBM Genesis Box Break #2

A month ago I did a post about a box break for a box of the new BBM Genesis set.  The box break was done by a reader named Pete who took a bunch of pictures for me.  I got a message from Pete earlier this week - he had bought another box of Genesis and was willing to again share information about what he got.

Each box of Genesis contains 20 five card packs for a total of 100 cards in the box.  Pete did almost as well on unique cards on the second box as he did on the first - 97 unique cards with only three doubles.

He got 69 cards from base set (66 singles plus the 3 doubles).  He also got 23 Cross Wind and 3 of the team checklist cards.  He got three parallels of the base set - green ones for Ryo Hijirisawa (47/100) and Kazuki Mishima (52/100) and a silver on for Shinnosuke Abe (9/25) plus a parallel for the Cross Wind subset for Naoya Masuda (69/100).  The top special card was an authentic autograph card of Takehiro Okada (T-Okada).  It was called Cross Signing and was numbered 14 of 20.

Here's some pictures that Pete was gracious enough to send:

#005 Silver Parallel

Back of #005 Silver Parallel

Cross Wind Parallel #CW097

Back Of Cross Wind Parallel #CW097

Cross Sign Autograph Card for T-Okada

Back Cross Sign Autograph Card for T-Okada

Pete reports that after buying two boxes, he is 15 cards short of the complete base set and 4 cards short of the complete Cross Wind subset.

He also passes on that he bought the box from Rakuten Global Market again for the same price ($95.97) as the first box.  He bought a couple other boxes for other sets (which I'll be doing a post about shortly) so the shipping charge was higher for the EMS shipping than it had been for the first box.

In addition to the two boxes, Pete had also picked up a couple Masahiro Tanaka memorabilia cards from Genesis off of Ebay and sent pictures of them along as well:

Thanks again Pete for passing along the information and the pictures.

Dual Champions Updated

I did a post a few years back listing all the guys who had played on both a World Series Champion and a Nippon Series Champion.  At the time, there were 10 players - five Westerners and five Japanese players.  On Wednesday of this week, Koji Uehara of the 2013 World Champion Boston Red Sox (sorry - as a Red Sox fan I really enjoy saying that phrase) became the eleventh player to do it, so I figured I should update the list.  Plus I actually now have Japanese cards of all eleven guys (thanks partly to the two gaijin OB sets BBM did last year) so I figured I could illustrate it a little better this time.

1964 Marukami JCM 14g

The first guy to pull the double was Johnny Logan.  Logan was the shortstop of the 1957 Champion Milwaukee Braves and played second and third for the Nankai Hawks in 1964.  He was also the first player to hit a home run in both in the World Series and the Nippon Series.

2013 BBM Legendary Foreigners #09

The next player was Jim Lefebvre, who had won a World Series with the 1965 Dodgers and a Nippon Series with the 1974 Lotte Orions.

2013 BBM Deep Impact #08

Roy White was the regular left fielder for the New York Yankees for most of the 1970's.  He moved to the Yomiuri Giants (the Japanese equivalent) in 1980 and spent three years in Tokyo. He won two World Series with the Yankees (1977 and 1978) and a Nippon Series with the Giants in 1981.  He was the second player to hit home runs in both the World Series and the Nippon Series.

1981 Calbee #366

Gary Thomasson was a teammate of Roy White's on the 1978 Champion Yankees and again on the 1981 Giants.

2013 BBM Deep Impact #37

Dan Gladden is the only other guy on this list (after Roy White) to play on multiple World Series winners.  He won with the Twins in both 1987 and 1991 and with the Giants in 1994.  Gladden is the final Westerner on the list.

2010 BBM Nippon Series #S18

Tadahito Iguchi was the first Japanese player to join the group.  After two Nippon Series Championships with the Hawks in 1999 and 2003, he joined the Chicago White Sox in 2005 just in time for them to win their first World Series since 1917.  He returned to Japan in 2009 and won a fourth Championship with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2010 (making him the third guy on the list with four championships between the two leagues).

1996 BBM Nippon Series #S23

So Taguchi won a Nippon Series with the Orix Blue Wave in 1996 and a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006.  He was also on the World Series roster for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008 but did not appear in the Series.  (Iguchi briefly played for the Phillies that season as well but did not play in the post-season.)

2004 BBM Nippon Series #06

The 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox (another of my favorite phrases) featured two players on this list.  Daisuke Matsuzaka had previously won a Nippon Series Championship with the 2004 Seibu Lions.

2006 BBM Nippon Series #S10

Hideki Okajima was the other player on this list on the 2007 Red Sox.  Okajima was the first four time Champion on the list - he had won two Nippon Series Championships with the Giants in 2000 and 2002 and another with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in 2006.

2002 BBM Nippon Series #S23

Another member of the 2000 and 2002 Nippon Series Champion Yomiuri Giants who also won a World Series (with the 2009 Yankees) was Hideki Matsui.  He also won a Nippon Series as a teammate of Gladden's in 1994.  Matsui is the only player to be named MVP of both the Nippon Series (2000) and the World Series.  He was the third player to homer in both the Nippon Series and the World Series (Andruw Jones this year became the fourth player to do although Jones never won a World Series.)  He was the second player on the list to have four championships.

2000 BBM Nippon Series #S5

Uehara is yet another member of the 2000 and 2002 Giants to also win a World Series.

As I had in the original post, I'll mention that George Vukovich could also be included on this list.  He was on the roster for the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies but did not appear in the World Series.  He also won Nippon Series with the Seibu Lions in 1986 and 1987.