Card Of The Week November 3

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles beat the Giants today 3-0 in Game Seven of this year's Nippon Series, clinching the Eagles' first ever Championship.  All 12 NPB teams have now won at least one Nippon Series.  The Eagles entered NPB in 2005 as an expansion team, replacing the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes who had merged with the Orix Blue Wave.  Ironically, Kintetsu had never won a Nippon Series during their 55 years of existence.

Akihisa Makida hit a home run in the fourth in today's game, increasing the Eagles lead from 2-0 to the final 3-0 score.  Makida is one of eight players who had been with the Eagles in their first season who were still active in either NPB or MLB in 2013 (according to a tweet by Jim Allen).  The others are Hisashi Iwakuma (Mariners), Takeshi Yamasaki (Dragons), Akihito Fujii (Hanshin Tigers), Katsuhiko Saka (Hanshin Tigers), Shinichiro Koyama (Eagles), Yosuke Takasu (Eagles) and Toshiya Nakashima (Eagles).  (Saka and Nakashima only played at the ni-gun level in 2005.)

Makida had been drafted in the fifth round of the 2001 draft by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.  His rookie card was from the 2001 BBM set (#508):