Card Of The Week November 29

Back at the beginning of March, I made note of the fact that with Norihiro Nakamura retiring, Michihiro Ogasawara was now the active home run leader in NPB.  I mentioned in the post that it would not be out of the question for Shinnosuke Abe (who had 346 home runs to Ogasawara's 378) to be the active leader by the end of 2015.  Well, here it is, the end of 2015 and Abe is now the active home run leader.  Not because he caught up with Ogasawara (he only had 15 home runs this season although Ogasawara didn't hit any) but because Ogasawara retired.  Abe did pass the second place player on the list (Nobuhiko Matsunaka who also had no home runs this year).

Here's Abe's rookie card from the 2001 Upper Deck set (#7):