Yasuhiko Kawamura

Former Chunichi Dragons pitcher Yasuhiko Kawamura has passed away at age 71.1964 Morinaga Standup2006 BBM Dragons 70th Anniversary Autograph2011 BBM Dragons 75th Anniversary #23

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Just discovered today that Gary Garland will be shutting down the Japan Baseball Daily website.  Thankfully, he’s not shutting it down immediately – he’s going to stop updating it following this season and take it off line at the end of the 2013 s…

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The first set issued by BBM each year is their “Historic Collection” set.  This year’s edition is entitled “Strongest Generation” (or something like that).Typically in the past, the “Historic Collection” sets haven’t really had any subsets – just …

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A couple of weeks ago when I did the write up on Norichika Aoki, I mentioned that I didn’t have either his 2004 BBM Rookie Edition card or his 2004 BBM 1st Version rookie card.  Through the wonders of eBay, I have rectified that problem:2004 BBM R…

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Last fall, BBM issued two separate OB sets for university leagues. One celebrated the 80th Anniversary of the Tohto University Baseball League while the other was for the Tokyo Big Six league (although apparently not for any specific celebration).The …

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Just finished reading Rob Fitts’ new book “Banzai Babe Ruth” (which was released in late January instead of the previously announced data of March 1st).  Very interesting book – I read it in less than a week (which is quick for me) as it was diffi…

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BBM officially released information about this year’s 1st Version set on Friday and I’m disappointed.  At 443 cards, the regular set is only 25 cards larger than last year’s set (which was the smallest 1st Version set ever).  Once again, ther…

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Since 2008, the Saitama Seibu Lions have had a handful of games each year dubbed “Lions Classic” games, where the team wears “Turn-Back-The-Clock” uniforms. Each season has featured a different era – 2008 was the 1950′s Nishitestsu Lions, 2009 was the…

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I’m a couple months late on these sets but I just got them in last week, so better late than never.Last season, the Marines celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their move across Tokyo Bay from Kawasaki to Chiba. BBM issued a 99 card pack based set in e…

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Ebbets Field Flannels this week unveiled a couple of new hat and t-shirt designs related to NBP teams.  There’s a 1940 Tokyo Giants hat, a 1966 Sankei Atoms hat and a 1963 Taiyo Whales t-shirt.  I thought this week I’d show someone wearing th…

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Started this post a couple weeks ago, but between my work schedule and trying to catch up on all the new imports, it’s been hard to find the time to get back to it.  But I have a package waiting at the post office that I’m going to pick up tomorro…

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A couple of months back, BBM released a box set called Neo Dragons that featured 12 young Chunichi Dragons players.  Last week, they announced on their website another new box set for the Dragons – the Veteran Dragons set.  This set features …

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One of the big stories in MLB last week was Prince Fielder signing with one of his father’s old teams, the Detroit Tigers.  Made me wonder if he had considered his father’s OTHER old team called the Tigers, the Hanshin ones.  Probably not.Her…

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Former Swallows outfielder Norichika Aoli signed a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers last week.  Aoki has a draft pick card in the 2004 BBM Rookie Edition set (#61) and his BBM rookie card is in the 2004 1st Version set (#308).  He did not …

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Former Lions and BayStars pitcher Yoshihiro Doi signed a minor league contract with the Orioles two weeks ago.  The Orioles apparently are attempting to stockpile former NBP pitchers having recently signed Tsuyoshi Wada and Wei-Yin Chen.Doi has re…

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Former Chunichi Dragons pitcher Wei-Yin Chen signed a contract with the Orioles recently.  Chen is from Taiwan originally, but he never played professionally in his home country (although he did pitch for Taiwan in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics). &nb…

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I was working out on Wednesday afternoon when the news broke about Yu Darvish signing his contract with the Rangers.  I started wondering if there would be someone new who there would constantly be rumors that he was about to ask to be posted, so …

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BBM’s 2011 season comes to a close with the annual Nippon Series box set.  The set contains 63 cards this season – cards for every player who appeared in the Series between the Hawks (25) and the Dragons  (30) along the team’s managers. &nbsp…

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The 2012 inductees for the Japanese Baseball Hall Of Fame were announced last week and both players elected from the Player’s Division were former Hiroshima Toyo Carp pitchers – Manabu Kitabeppu and Tsunemi Tsuda.Kitabeppu pitched for the Carp for…

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Between a rash of recent signings and my crazy work schedule last week, I’ve really gotten behind on the new imports.  I’ll start getting caught up with the big one…This week, after years of speculation about when and if he was going to come to …

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BBM released information about a couple of sets last week:- The Orix Buffaloes PEDIGREE set is a 37 card box set highlighting the Orix Buffaloes throwback series last year – one where they wore old Hankyu Braves uniforms and one where they wore old Kin…

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Sorry about being late this week – spent last week in Software Integration Hell and I’m just now recovering. A couple of months ago, I mentioned that True Stories of Korean Baseball had part 1 and part 2 of an interview with Masaichi Kaneda.  They…

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Hiroyuki Nakajima and the Yankees failed to settle on a contract last week for Nakajima will be returning to the Lions this coming season.  I’ve heard rumors that the Rangers-Darvish negotiations aren’t going well either and the fact that the…

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Last week Hisashi Iwakuma signed a one year deal with the Mariners.  Iwakuma’s rookie card was #388 in the 2000 BBM set when he was a member of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.  His next “regular’ issue BBM card was in the 2002 1st Version set (…

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Happy New Year!(2008 BBM Lotte 40th Anniversary #04)

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I’m going to do away with the box around the set summary because it didn’t seem to work right with different browsers.  You may have noticed this before I did 1994 BBM Set SummarySize:  608 cardsCards Per Team:  42 (team car…

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It is with heavy heart that I write this post.  After not pitching for the 2011 season, Kimiyasu Kudoh, the last NBP player older than me, announced his retirement a few weeks ago after a discussion with DeNA, the new owners of the Baystars, …

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Once again, I was going through some old minor league cards of mine the other day and discovered a former NBP player.  It turns out that one of the coaches for the 2001 Vero Beach Dodgers was former Giants and Lions pitcher Yoshitaka Katori. &nbsp…

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A little late this week due to the holiday.  Hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a merry one and everyone else had a good day as well.As an early Christmas present to myself, I picked up a large lot of old Calbee cards off of eBay last week…

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Another Hawk has flown away from Fukuoka as infielder Munenori Kawasaki signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners last week.  Kawasaki’s rookie card is #291 from the 2000 BBM set.   He didn’t appear again in another of the main BBM…

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Last week former Fukuoka Softbank Hawk pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles. He had a draft pick card (#63) in the 2003 BBM Rookie Edition set.  His BBM rookie card is #273 from the 2003 1st Version set. His Calbee …

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I’d been meaning to do a post about the Japanese players playing in foreign winter leagues this off-season but I simply haven’t had time to do the research.  And since most of them are returning home before the end of the year, I probably won’t bo…

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It was announced this past week that Takeshi Yamasaki, who was released by the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles at the end of the season, has signed a one year contract with his old team:  the Chunichi Dragons.  Here’s his BBM 1st Version card (#…

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As you might expect, with Yu Darvish’s decision to be posted last week there has been a veritable cornucopia of Darvish cards put up on eBay.  Among the usual BBM and Calbee suspects, I saw this card being offered a lot:I’m probably stating the ob…

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1993 In A BoxSize:  498 cardsCards Per Team:  35 (team card, manager + 33 players)Team Card Theme:  Team logosNumber Of Leader Cards: 27Checklists: 8Subsets: Affluent Nineteen (19 highest paid players?), Nostalgic Stars (10 cards fe…

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