Kenji Yano

Fighters outfielder Kenji Yano retired at the end of last season.  Yano was a sixth round pick of the Giants out of Kokugakuin University in the 2002 NPB draft.  He was a regular outfielder for the Giants in 2006 but moved into a backup/pinch hitter role for 2007.  Injuries cost him most of 2008-09 as he only got into 9 games with the ichi-gun team. Once healthy again in 2010 he resumed his backup role which is pretty much how he spent the remainder of his career.  He set the Giants record for pinch hits in 2013 with 19.  He was traded to the Fighters along with Hideki Sunaga midway through the 2015 season for Toshiyuki Yanuki and Atsushi Kita.

Yano got into two Nippon Series with the Giants, winning in 2012 against the Fighters but losing in 2013 against the Eagles (Masahiro Tanaka stuck him out to end Game Seven in the rain in Sendai).  He was back on the winning side in the Nippon Series in 2016 with the Fighters.

His first BBM cards were #5 from the 2003 Rookie Edition set and #29 from the 2003 BBM 1st Version set.  His first Calbee card was #210 from the 2005 set.

2003 BBM Rookie Edition #5

2003 BBM 1st Version #29

2007 Konami Baseball Heroes 3 Black Edition #B07B199

2011 BBM Tohto 80th Memorial #87

2012 BBM Nippon Series #S32

2013 Calbee #079

2016 BBM Fighters Opening #26

2018 BBM Fighters #F66

I used his Baseball-Reference Bullpen article as one of my sources for this post.

And I'm still amused I came across of jersey of his in London last September...