1998 BBM BayStars Get the Flag! Part I

The 1998 BayStars team was pretty good. I'm not going to get into the details, but the team won the Nippon Series for the first time since 1960 - that's 38 years. Their opponents, on the other hand, were the dynastic Seibu Lions. The dynasty was basically over by 1994, but they won the league championship in 1997 as well.

To commemorate the BayStars' success in 1998, BBM issued a limited box set. That set was so popular and sold out so fast that BBM created a second series. The two series are numbered sequentially; series one is #1-40 while series 2 is #41-80. There are some similarities in the sets: both start with a collection of single player cards (the same players in the same order), followed by a handful of subsets. You'll series one's subsets below; series two had six retired players and three congratulatory cards.

Series One was limited to 5000 sets, while Series Two was doubled to 10,000. Both sets retailed for 2000 yen each (about $20). 

Series One is very difficult to find. I have never seen single cards in shops. I've found some singles from Series Two. Recently, I found a good deal on the first series set and snatched it up for my collections. Many of the cards are off to the type collection, while a couple others found homes in other collections. But before I split everything up, I scanned in the fronts to share here, so you can see a full set.

So, without further delay, here is Series One in card order.

1-3

4-6

7-9

10-12

13-14

15-16

17-19

20-22

23-25

26-28

29-31

32

33-34

35-37

38-40

The final three cards use gold foil for the text at the bottom.

Gripes about this 23 year old set include a lack of highlights. We get three memorable game cards in a subset, but all three just show the team celebrating. It would have been better to see more season highlights and include photos of those actual highlights. The regular card photos all look like ones you'd find in any BBM set, either, so there aren't many good reasons to buy this set.

The best card in the set is obviously the one with the bullpen car. I'm not knocking the set, it's just rare to see a bullpen car on Japanese cardboard, and it seems to be an action photo as well!

Just so you can see both sides, here is Bobby Rose's regular card in the first series set.

Just FYI, I don't have a second series set and I'm not planning a post right now specifically featuring Part II. So here is Takashi Saitoh's card (#YB42), front and back. His first series card is #2 if you want to see the photo they used for the front. Judge for yourself.

Until next time...

BayStars B*Spirit Team Issue Cards 2016-2019

Many teams have their own card sets; MLB teams have had card giveaways for decades, and Japanese teams have their own sets.

The BayStars sets seem to be comprehensive, containing every player on the roster at the time of issue. I call these "B*Spirit" given the notation on the backs. This also distinguishes them from other BayStars sets; the past two seasons saw team-issued (or at least, team-sanctioned) pack based sets. (I opened a box of one of these a couple months ago; they are technically issued by Produce216, but don't carry TIC logos or copyrights.)

I was happy to grab a big lot of cards from the past several years in hopes of finding some Rami-chan singles I didn't have and filling in some gaps. I was successful on both fronts; you'll see the Ramirez cards included below, and for several of the years, I grabbed one card from the stack for the type collection.

Note that, to save space, I've left these images pretty small. But you can enlarge them by clicking on them, or right-clicking and opening in a new window for the full size window. Of course, if you're on mobile, that might be more difficult. Sorry.

 The 2016 set was the most represented in this lot. It is my favorite set, so that was a bonus.

 If you didn't notice, the backgrounds are images of Yokohama Stadium. What I didn't notice until now was that the cards could actually be pieced together like a puzzle to make a big stadium image.

 Not exciting are the poses. I bet you can tell who all of the pitchers and catchers are just by looking at the photos. The straight-on mug shot on the back is pretty plain, too, though I like the isolated facsimile autographs. There are interesting inspirational quotes on the back. I don't know how or why they were chosen.

 There's Rami-chan (Alex Ramirez). And two backup backup backup catchers. It's a nice set!

 I only have eight cards from 2017. But there's another Ramirez. This time, the background is black-and-white, though it looks like you could make a full stadium image by piecing the right backgrounds together. Backs are similar to the year before, including the same quotes for each player.

 Here's 2018. I have 14 of these, but none of Ramirez. The quotes seem to have changed, though again the front has an image of the stadium. I can't tell for sure, but there might be two different angles.

 I think the cards look better overall because the backs have more color, though the quotes are back, in the same place. Those numbers, by the way, are jersey numbers, and are the only numbering on the cards, making BayStars B*Spirit sets skip-numbered.

Finally, 2019. And finally, no more stadium puzzles. Instead, we have giant players standing in the Yokohama skyline, with a background of the entire stadium. Between the player and the stadium is a giant WordArt rendering of the player's name, fitting on two to four lines. The backs have another angle of the skyline with a second pose instead of just a headshot. And the quote lines are back. Again.

I still feel 2016 is the best design of these four years. What do you think?