[DaClyde]

While the wording isn't clear, the article makes it sound like there were either 4 sets of 32 cards, one for each team, or a single 32-card set including all 4 teams. Either way, that puts the total either to 32 cards or 128 cards, of which only 3 or 4 have ever surfaced (supposedly there is also a Benny Agbayani in circulation), and naturally of the most popular players in 2001 (not 1993).

The timing sort of makes it even mor suspicious, as the season wasn't over, so Ichiro wasn't the league standout, yet, which gives even less reason for him to be so prominent in a 1993 set.

I do remember seeing the McGwire Anchorage Glacier Pilots cards in 1987. They were showing up at card shows, but they were definitely printed in 1987 (and subsequently in the lunch room at school), not 1982. The team even said as much when asked about them. But information just didn't circulate well back then. Unless it was printed in the hobby magazines repeatedly, most collectors would still miss that bit of information.