I was checking out Niki's website the other day to see what new sets BBM had coming out but had not announced on their website yet. I came across something called Deep Impact which apparently is a sequel to the Legendary Foreigner set from last winter. Like the earlier set, this one will have 81 cards - 72 player cards and 9 "Off Shot" cards.
It's the player list that made me think of the phrase "dame gaijin". Some of the guys included...did not acquit themselves well in Japan. Just in the sample cards shown on the image are Mike Greenwell (quit after playing just 7 games for the Tigers in 1997), Kevin Mitchell (only played 37 games for the Hawks in 1995 after being paid 400 million yen for the season) and Joe Pepitone (both Robert Whiting's "The Chrysanthemum And The Bat" and Robert Obojski's "The Rise Of Japanese Baseball Power" include stories about Pepitone's 1973 season with Yakult - Whiting includes it in a chapter called "Ugly Americans"). I'm not sure who else will be included (there's a list in katakana on the website but I didn't try to translate it myself).
Greenwell and Mitchell had BBM cards back when they played in Japan. The Mitchell card is a "Late Series" card from the 1995 set and is actually pretty rare but the Greenwell card from the 1997 set shows up on Ebay fairly often (as well as his "Diamond Heroes" card). Here's the Greenwell:
| 1997 BBM #440 |
2 comments:
Hopefully the name that translates to "Mullen" is actually Hensley Meulens. Don't see anything that might be Bernardo Brito, but hey, they got Henry Cotto, Rob Deer and Melvin Bunch. Looks like even a card for Ozzie Canseco, who never even made it to the NPB!
My bet is that it is Bam Bam - might be Scott Mullen who played with Yokohama and the Giants in the mid-aughts but I kind of doubt it.
Just looking at the translated list - looks like Reggie Smith is included as well. He's part of a chapter in "You Gotta Have Wa" called "Giant Headache". Also Frank Howard and Bill Madlock. Some of the listings are for players who were in the earlier set - don't know if they appear in both sets or what the deal is.
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