2018 Hall Of Fame Class

The 2018 Hall Of Fame inductees were announced today.  The inductees from the Players Division ballot were Hideki Matsui and Tomoaki Kanemoto.  Both players were inducted in their first year of eligibility.  Matsui is only the third member of the Hall Of Fame to have played in MLB (after Hideo Nomo and Kazuhiro Sasaki) and at 43 years and 7 months is the youngest Hall Of Famer ever elected.  Tatsunori Hara as the sole selection of the Expert Division - he had just missed being elected in 2015, his final year on the Players Division ballot.  The Special Division election selected long time high school and university manager Masao Taki.

The Hall Of Fame's English language press release is here (in pdf form).

Here are cards for Hara, Kanemoto and Matsui - I'm not aware of any cards for Taki.

Tatsunori Hara

1981 Yamakatsu Young Giants

1993 Kanebo #017

2010 BBM 20th Anniversary #224

 Tomoaki Kanemoto

1994 BBM #363

2003 Calbee #106

2012 BBM Tigers #T058 (Foil Parallel)

 Hideki Matsui

1994 Takara Giants #55

1999 Calbee #266 (Gold Signature Parallel)

2002 BBM Central League Champion Giants #YG38