Interest in the sport of baseball was promoted by the visit of the 1934 All-Stars that include many prominent players such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, and Charlie Gehringer.

Therefore soldiers and samurais were removed from the menkos, being replaced by Japanese baseball stars and sumo wrestlers as "hero figures".

[1] Baseball menko exist in three shape categories: round, die-cut, and rectangular, and in a variety of sizes.

The "1947 Red or Blue Borders" round menko were 1+7⁄8 inches (48 mm) in diameter, with cartoon-like players on the front and blank backs.

The team name in English, an arithmetic addition or subtraction, and the player name and sometimes position in kanji were also on the front.

BBM sets were the first to feature almost every player in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team.