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.

2020 BBM Retirement Set (Farewell Ballplayers)

By my count, by the time this publishes, BBM will have issued nine baseball card sets for the 2020 card year. The first two came out before the New Year: the retro-themed Time Travel 1985, and the ultra-premium Glory. In January, BBM released its annual set honoring players who called it quits after the prior season.

Each 7000-yen box comes with a 36-card complete set and one autograph. And that's really all the release contains.

The base cards use the same basic design as always; the diamond in the center basically translates as "Regret at Departing Ballplayer". Several of the cards depict the players retirement ceremonies, holding flowers or being tossed into the air. I love this image of Tanaka; hands-down it's the best in the set.

Thirty-two of the 36 players in the base set have autographed cards as well, with print runs ranging from 10 to 120 copies. Totaling them up reveals that 3000 sets were made.

There is a somewhat interesting story in this set with Shintaro Yokota. He was drafted out of high school by the Tigers in 2013, and spent 2014 and 2015 with the minor league team. After a very good spring training in 2016, he made the opening day roster, but struggled in the regular season and by the end of June he was back with the ni-gun team.

He again was practicing with the big club during 2017 Spring Training, but left due to recurring headaches. Eventually it was discovered that he had a brain tumor, but after surgery the cancer was in remission. He wasn't able to play successfully after that due to vision problems from the tumor, though he spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons training with the team.

He announced his retirement on September 22nd, and a ceremony was planned following the September 26 game. After three seasons off the field, he played center field for the ni-gun team as a defensive replacement, throwing out a runner at the plate in the eighth inning. So, after six seasons, Yokota hung up his cleats.

Yokota only played in 38 games, all in 2016, for the Hanshin Tigers top ballclub, batting .190.

Book Review: Wally Yonamine

One last book review from March. Seriously, I read four books and never wrote about them! Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball by Rob Fitts came to me through a Mercari purchase of all things. It's the first book by Fitts I've read, though I also have his book Mashi: Masanori Murakami, which I picked up when both Fitts and Murakami made an appearance in Tokyo a few years ago. He's written a few more books on Japanese baseball, collects Japanese baseball cards, and sells cards on eBay, too. (Not right now, due to stay-at-home orders. But usually.)

Wally Yonamine is a man of firsts: he was the first Japanese American to play in the NFL (for the San Francisco 49ers) and the first American to play baseball in Japan after World War II, for the Yomiuri Giants. He was the first foreign manager in NPB, with the Chunichi Dragons. He brought more-aggressive baseball to Japan, playing for the strongest, most popular team in Japan. He won countless awards and was inducted to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994 - the only American in the Hall as a player.

This book is the definitive record of Wally Yonamine's life. Fitts did his homework, interviewing players, friends, family members, and Yonamine himself. Fitts is most concerned with Wally's baseball career, but he also talks about his upbringing, his football career, Pearl Harbor, and stealing watermelons. We read about his efforts on the diamond and his relationships with his wife and children.

Overall, this book is extremely well-written. It is a passion project, that is obvious. My only minor complaint is the change in style in the last chapter, titled Hall of Fame. For the first 20 chapters of the book, Fitts talks about Yonamine as a third person, telling the story of his life. Chapter 21 continues that story, but this is the point where Yonamine enters Fitts' life, and the book turns first person for a while. And from history to praise. I only wish Fitts had split that chapter in two, talking about Yonamine's post-baseball life (which never really ended; he was involved with the Master League even in 2008, in his 80s) in a chapter, and sharing his personal story and Yonamine's legacy in an epilogue or afterword. It's still a great book.

I have a few Yonamine cards laying around, but no definitive card. As I've been doing with other players I've read about, I'm on the lookout for a good card to represent the book. I've got my eyes on some vintage cards, but until then, here's a card of him sliding in to home.

And with that, I've gotten caught up on books. I haven't been reading these past couple weeks, so I have some catching up to do. My vacation starts tomorrow, so vacation #1 is traveling back in time over 100 years, again.

Until next time...