Masahiko Morino

Man, it's already mid-November and I haven't started on posts for the players who retired at the end of the season.  I need to get going on this or I'll still be doing them next spring...

Masahiko Morino announced his retirement in September, bringing to close a 21 year career spent entirely with the Chunichi Dragons.  Morino was the Dragons' 2nd pick in the fall 1996 draft out of Tokaidai Sagami high school.  He made his ichi-gun debut in the middle of the 1997 season but it wasn't until 2002 that he spent the majority of the season with the top team and not until 2005 that he became a regular.  He won a Best 9 award in 2010 and a Golden Glove in 2014 and made the All Star team in 2007 and 2010.  He played in five Nippon Series (2004, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011) and won an "Outstanding Player" in the 2007 Series (the only time the Dragons were victorious in the five Series he played in).  He also played for the 2008 Japanese Olympic team.

The Dragons had put up a web page showing highlights from his career and his retirement game on September 24th.

His BBM rookie cards was #492 in the 1997 set.  He also appeared in a BBM Dragons box set that year (#D36).  His first Calbee card was not until 2005 (#195).

1997 BBM #492

2002 BBM 2nd Version #580

2005 Konami Baseball Heroes Old White Edition #B05W026

2007 BBM All Stars #A57

2008 BBM Japan National Team #JPN26

2010 BBM Nippon Series #S54

2011 BBM 1st Version #373

2012 Calbee #185

2014 BBM Classic #059

2017 Epoch Dragons #21