Arihito Muramatsu

Arihito Muramatsu of the Hawks retired at the end of the season. Muramatsu had been drafted by the Hawks in the "1991" draft (which took place in autumn, 1990, of course). He didn't play much at the ichi-gun level until 1995 when he hit .308 in 95 games. He was pretty much a regular for the Hawks then until after 2003 when he left as a free agent for the Orix Blue Wave. He remained with Orix through the merge with Kintetsu in the winter of 2004-05 until he was traded back to the Hawks following the 2008 season.

He wasn't a huge star - the only offensive category he lead the league in was stolen bases in 1996, the year he made his only Best 9 team. He was named to three all star teams (96, 03 and 04) and played in three Nippon Series with the Hawks, winning in 1999 and 2003 and losing in 2000.

The earliest card I have for him is a 1993 Tomy card. I'm not positive what his earliest BBM card is - I know he's got a card in the 1995 set (#446) but it wouldn't surprise me to discover one from the 1994 set (although I haven't found him listed). Similarly with Calbee, I know he's got a card in the 1997 set (#002), but I'm not sure about earlier ones.

Here's a smattering of cards covering his career:

2005 BBM Rookie Edition (#95) showing him as a ni-gun Hawk in 1991 (he didn't make his debut with the big team until 1992):


1993 Tomy (#206):


1997 BBM '96 Stolen Base Leader (#13):


2003 BBM Nippon Series (#21):


2004 BBM All Stars (#A62):


2008 BBM 1st Version (#171):


2010 BBM 1st Version (#319):