1931 Yakyukai Magazine Bromides

 Say hello to the oldest Japanese card in my collection.

In fact, it doesn't get much older than this. Baseball's first professional teams formed in the 1920s, though the first real professional team (which would become the Yomiuri Giants) wouldn't form until 1934. Before that, most baseball was played by high school and college students. The Koshien high school baseball tournament started in 1915, with the spring version starting in 1924. The Tokyo Big6 Baseball League (college) was established in 1925, though college baseball was big for more than 20 years prior.

The first identified bromides in Engel's guide come from 1930, with all pre-war sets consisting of college players or US players from the Japan tours. It's definitely possible that cards were issued before 1930; in fact, I'm pretty sure they have been, but just haven't been cataloged yet. 

And that puts us with this card here:

The card above is identified as JBR 71: 1931 Yakyukai Magazine Sepia Bromides. Cards were included in the February 1932 issue of the magazine inside an envelope, and came blank-backed. The bottom text has the school name, player's surname, and position, from left to right. The card measures 3-3/8" by 5-3/8". Three cards were in the set. The card I have above is Kiyokazu Igawa, from Keio University. The remaining players are Osamu Mihara from Waseda, and Takeo Tabe from Meiji.

Yakyukai Magazine was issued for a very long time - from late 1911 through October 1959, it appears. Only two sets of bromides are listed in the Engel guide from the magazine, however: this one, and one for the January 1934 issue. The image above is the February 1932 cover. I'm not sure why Engel calls this a 1931 card, though while the cover date is February 1932, the magazine was possibly on shelves just before or on New Years.

Finding information on Igawa isn't easy. It appears he might have participated in the Koshien Tournament in the 1920s, and more famously, I think he was partly involved in what translates as the "Apple Incident" on October 22, 1933. While it seems that rivalry has caused problems for a long time, this particular event, involving the throwing of trash, including an apple core, was the impetus for creating specific cheering sections for fans.

To this day, sporting events have "cheering" sections where only that team's fans can enter; for smaller matches such as independent leagues that just means sit on your team's side, while NPB stadium rules basically prohibit entering another team's fan area (if you're wearing a Giants jersey, you aren't allowed in the Tigers fan area, and vice versa), and these fan areas can be fairly well "fenced in" to prohibit infiltrating enemy lines (and keep people from sneaking into more expensive seats). 

Odd note I discovered while preparing this post: the Japanese version of Wikipedia has a page explaining what a strike is in baseball. The page's photo shows Barry Bonds from behind home plate as an umpire calls a strike.

New Release: 2020 BBM Fusion

The last 2020 set* from BBM was Fusion, a now-annual issue which fuses accomplishments from the prior season with identical, or at least similar, accomplishments in the past. One card highlights an event in 2020, with the following card (or two cards) showing that same event in a previous season. It serves as a good summary of the last season.

*BBM released a set called Glory after Fusion was released, but it has a 2021 "issue year" so it doesn't count.

There are 99 cards in the base set, and all but one have the design seen above. The front shows the date of the highlight, with the text below it explaining the highlight. The next line has the player's name, team, and position, followed by his name in romaji and jersey number. The back has the typical bio stats at the top, with an explanation of the highlight in the middle; the bottom has the player's 2020 and career stats.

Card 99 is the only one with a different design, paying tribute to Hayato Sakamoto's 2000th hit.

There are several inserts to be found in the set. The first two are found at the same rate as regular cards.

As in the past, BBM included a "1st Version Update" set mostly containing traded players plus some new ones. There are 24 cards in this set using the 1st Version design, numbered 601-624 to add to the end of the flagship set.

13 Ceremonial First Pitch cards #FP14-FP26 continue the insert found in 2nd Version. While the 2nd Version cards featured first pitches from prior seasons, the Fusion set has first pitches thrown out in the 2020 season. There are several variations of foil parallels of this set, found serial numbered to 250 (holo), 200 (silver), 100 (gold), 50 (silver holo), and 25 (gold holo) copies.

Title Holder originally was a subset found in the base set, but are now numbered as a separate set. They still appear at the same rate as the regular cards. The 24 cards in this set have 12 Central League and 12 Pacific League leaders in various categories. There are two parallels: silver #/150 and silver holo #/50.

The next two sets are standard BBM inserts, found at a lower rate than the base cards.

Legendary Players features 12 retired players, one from each team. These can be found in silver #/100 and gold /50 parallels.

The Great Record insert set features two players from each team, for a total of 24 cards, reaching various career milestones. These too are found in silver #/100 and gold /50 parallels.

There are two premium insert sets, Phantom (#/25, 12 cards, one per team) and Esperanza (#/50, 24 cards, two per team).

As for autographs, regular autographs can be found for many subjects #/10-90. The cross-set Cross Sign Autographs feature 16 cards using the Cross Blossoms design, serial numbered between 10 and 30 copies each. Finally, nine First Pitch Autographs can be found #/25-55 copies, with a special Foil version #/5.

2020 BBM 1st Version

Let's tackle this monster.

BBM's 1st Version came out in early April following the same basic formula that they have been using for the past few years. The base set is 336 cards: 324 player cards and 12 team checklists.

 Base cards have a radioactive cloud in one corner. Depending on the photo, I find it distracting due to the bright colors; otherwise, it's not a bad design. The backs are pretty standard.

 Let's talk parallels:

• Silver Signature (unnumbered, above left)
• Gold Signature #/100 (above center)
• Holo Signature #/50 (above right)
• Red Signature #/25 

• Rookie Parallel #/200 (foilboard)
• Rookie Parallel #/100 (holofoil, seen above)
• Rookie Parallel #/50 (foil stamp)

There are also 12 "secret" and 12 "super secret" photo variation parallels. 

As always, the set includes 12 team checklists. Photos on the front appear to come from this year's spring training. Overall, I didn't find the photos to be too appealing compared to prior years.

 This year's theme for the cross-brand set is Cross Blossoms, and the design has an image of cherry blossoms at night with a gigantic full moon in the background. There are two parallels for this set: a foilboard #/100 version and a 1/1 holofoil verison.

 One player from each team can be found in New Age Stars. The foil design looks better in person. A #/100 parallel with a lamé finish can be found.

 Japonism returns, and has a definite traditional Japanese theme for 12 cards, one per team. Regular inserts have gold, there are also pink #/100 and sky blue 1/1 parallels.

3D Cross Blossoms is pretty self-explanatory if you've read everything up to this point. This 12-card set is #/25.

Finally, a 12-card foil autograph version of the Cross Blossoms set titled Cross Foil Signing rounds out the insert offerings. These are #/15.

Moving on to special cards, there are three memorabilia cards: M1 and M2 are single-jersey relic cards while M3 is a dual-jersey card.

 As always, the cross-brand set has Cross Signature parallels in single and dual-player versions. There's also a Special Cross Signature set.

The 10-card Japonism Signature set gives a horizontal variation on the insert design, leaving space for the sticker autograph.

Finally, four players also have buyback autographs in the set; each player has 10 autographs spread across differing numbers and quantities of cards.

2020 BBM Icons Fireballer

What, at first, appeared to be a one-off box set has turned into an annual staple. The Icons series hit shelves in late March, focusing on fastball pitchers this year.

My sample base card is Yudai Ohno, who first came onto my radar when Zippy Zappy pointed out how fun it is to say his name. He's proven to be a decent pitcher for the Dragons, and he even threw a no-hitter last year.

A full 36-card base set can be found in each 4000-yen box along with one "special" card. I don't have a special card yet, but here are your options. Total print run comes to 3500 sets.

Foil Cards, 6 cards, #/30 each, 180 total cards

2020 Rookies, 6 cards, #/60 and #/30 holofoil parallel, 540 total cards

Print Autographs, 12 cards, #/90, #/60 holofoil parallel, #/30 red foil parallel, 2160 total cards

Autographs, 29 cards, various print runs, 620 total cards (approximately 18% chance)

Because I enjoy themed sets, I've been collecting the Icons base set for its entire run. I just wish BBM would be a bit more original with their designs. This year's special cards look nice, though; I'm sure the Fireballer foil insert looks better in person.

2020 BBM Rookie Edition

Every year, BBM issues a set showing the rookie class in typical studio shots. The newly-drafted players put on their jerseys, take a couple photos in front of a blank wall, and end up on a trading card in February.

Each eight card pack retails for 400 yen, with 15-pack boxes running 6000 yen. Japan doesn't really believe in bulk pricing. The base set has 120 cards. Cards 1-107 are rookies, #108 is a list of the draft picks, and the remaining 12 cards make up the usual subset.

 The base cards this year use octagonal backgrounds. The backs have photos showing all of the draftees for each team and a write-up about the player's career before being drafted.

There are several partial parallels in this year's set. If not noted below, the parallels essentially cover each team's top five to seven picks.

• Silver Signature /100
• Gold Signature /75
• Green Signature /50
• Red Signature /20
• Sky Blue Signature 1/1 (First Draft)
• Holofoil /20 (First Draft)
• "Secret" Photo Variations (First Draft)

The 12-card Early Days subset features a veteran from each team, pictured when their career was just beginning. The back shows their team's draft class when they were picked; Aoki here was the Swallows fourth draft pick in 2003.

The Next Generation insert set has one younger player from each team. That's twelve cards.

And as customary, the previous year's Rookie of the Year winners get their own gold foilboard insert.

There are several autograph sets to be found in this year's release.

• Early Days Signature, an 8-card parallel to the subset
• First Draft Pick Signature (12 cards)
• First Draft Pick Silver Signature (12 cards /30, not a parallel)
• Prospect Signature (42 cards)
• Fresh Stars Signature (7 cards)
• Rookie Signature Boards (107 autographed signature boards, all 1/1)

BBM didn't release any promo images from the autograph sets, and I don't have any in my collection at the time of this writing.

You made it this far. Here's an image of one of the players who threw his jersey on over his high school uniform. I'm guessing it's his high school uniform. Or perhaps, in Yuki's case, his college uniform (yes, for some schools, that is a thing). I can't imagine him, or any of these players, owning many white shirts and neckties. Perhaps he bought it just for the draft event.