In April of 2012, ten years ago this month, BBM released their latest collegiate set dedicated to the Tokyo Big Six league. It was their ninth set for the league and tenth collegiate set overall.
It wasn't obvious at the time - in fact I didn't pick up on it for about four months so my post for the set misidentified it - but despite this set coming out at the same time the Spring Season was starting and at the same time of year that the four previous "Spring Version" sets had been released, this was not a "Spring Version" set. This would end up being the ONLY Tokyo Big Six set that BBM issued in 2012 - there would be no "Autumn Version" in the fall.
The set contained 37 cards - the 36 card base set plus one "special" card that was either one of six possible "Tokyo Big6 Heroes" insert cards or an autographed card. The team cards were back after not appearing in the 2011 Autumn Version set so there were 30 player cards in the set (five for each team). All 30 of the players appearing in the set had either 29 or 30 serially numbered autograph cards.
Of 30 players in the set, nine would go on to play in NPB. Six of those nine had been featured in one or more of the previous Tokyo Big Six sets although Takashi Uemoto had gone three years since his last card. All the players are still active although only seven of them are still in NPB - Shota Sugiyama is a player-coach for Showa in the corporate leagues while Kohei Arihara is in MLB with the Texas Rangers (and is still the only player featured in a Tokyo Big Six league set to play in MLB).
Here's the list of future NPB players from the set:
| Player | College | Year | Drafted | Notes |
|---|
| Arihara, Kohei | Waseda | 2 | 2014 Fighters 1st | Played for Fighters 2015-2020, Texas Rangers 2021-present. 2015 Rookie Of The Year. Lead PL in wins in 2019. All Star in 2016 & 2019 |
| Fukutani, Koji | Keio | 4 | 2012 Dragons 1st | Played for Dragons 2013-present. All Star in 2014 |
| Ishida, Kenta | Hosei | 2 | 2014 Baystars 2nd | Played for Baystars 2015-present. All Star in 2016 |
| Mishima, Kazuki | Hosei | 4 | 2012 Baystars 2nd | Played for Baystars 2013-present. All Star in 2013 & 2021 |
| Oka, Hiromi | Meiji | 3 | 2013 Fighters 3rd | Played for Fighters 2014-18, Marines 2018-present. |
| Sugiyama, Shota | Waseda | 4 | 2012 Dragons 4th | Played for Dragons 2013-2019. Played for Independent Ryukyu Blue Oceans in 2020-21. Player/coach for Showa in the corporate leagues starting in 2022 |
| Takanashi, Yuhei | Waseda | 2 | 2016 Eagles 9th | Spent two years with JX-ENOS after graduating. Played for Eagles 2017-2020, Giants 2020-present. All Star in 2021 |
| Uemoto, Takashi | Meiji | 4 | 2012 Carp 3rd | Played for Carp 2013-present |
| Yamasaki, Sachiya | Meiji | 2 | 2014 Buffaloes 1st | Played for Buffaloes 2015-present |
Here's each of their cards from the set as well as a card of them in NPB. As usual I tried to get the most recent card of theirs that I hadn't already shown when possible. I should mention that both Fukutani and Takanashi had "Tokyo Big6 Heroes" insert cards in the set but I don't have either of those - I actually pulled an autograph card of Hiroshi Taki of Hosei. Another thing I want to mention is that you'll notice that Hiromi Oka is shown as a pitcher on his collegiate card but a batter on his NPB card - Oka was a two-way player at Meiji but the Fighters drafted him as an infielder rather than a pitcher. As far as I know he has not pitched at all in NPB, either on the top or farm teams.
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #07 |
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| 2020 Konami Baseball Collection #202000-N-F016 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #25 |
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| 2021 Calbee #OP-09 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #20 |
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| 2021 Epoch Baystars Rookies & Stars #03 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #19 |
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| 2021 BBM 1st Version #248 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #01 |
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| 2021 BBM Marines #M62 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #10 |
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| 2018 BBM Dragons #D39 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #08 |
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| 2021 Epoch NPB #229 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #03 |
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| 2021 Epoch Carp Rookies & Stars #23 |
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| 2012 BBM Tokyo Big Six #02 |
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| 2021 BBM 2nd Version #463 |
Of the remaining 21 players, six of them - Fumitaka Kageyama of Keio, Shohei Katoh of Rikkio, Ken Nagai of Tokyo, Takahiko Naruse of Tokyo, Yuji Tanaka of Meiji and Yusuke Yamada of Rikkio - had their only card ever in this set. The other 15 players - half the set - had appeared in at least one other BBM Tokyo Big Six set - Naoki Agata (Keio), Naoto Hatsuma (Tokyo), Ryosuke Itoh (Hosei), Yuki Jibiki (Waseda), Masato Komura (Rikkio), Koichiro Matsumoto (Rikkio), Hiroki Nakashima (Meiji), Kenya Okabe (Rikkio), Koki Sasaki (Waseda), Shota Suzuki (Tokyo), Yohei Tachi (Tokyo), Daisuke Takeuchi (Keio), Hiroshi Taki (Hosei), Kento Tatebe (Hosei) and Ren Yamasaki (Keio).
