Akira Etoh

Maybe it was just me, but it seemed that Akira Etoh's retirement didn't get a whole lot of press in the last days of the season. It could have been announced earlier and I just missed it. The Lions apparently gave him a send off at their fan fest yesterday.

I can't write a better biography of him than what's already at the Baseball Reference bullpen, so I'll just show a bunch of cards. Here's his rookie card (as a catcher!) from the 1991 BBM set (#283):


1992 BBM #437 with Tomonori Maeda:


1996 BBM All Stars #A8:


1999 BBM #360:


After the 1999 season, Etoh left the Carp for the Giants. Here's his 2000 BBM New Face insert card #NF2:


2001 BBM #275:


2002 BBM Nippon Series #S19:


2005 BBM Giants #G099 ("Shared Number Subset") - Shigeo Nagashima switched from uniform #33 back to #3 in 2000. I'm guessing he did this to accomodate Etoh, who had worn #33 as a Carp:


Following the 2005 season, Etoh was traded to the Lions as compensation for the Giants signing Kiyoshi Toyoda. 2006 BBM 1st Version #92:


2009 BBM 1st Version #021: