Pitcher Toshiya Sugiuchi of the Giants announced his retirement back in mid-September. Sugiuchi originally was from Kyushu - he was born in Onojo, went to high school in Kagoshima and played in the corporate leagues for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagaski - so it was fitting that he was the third round pick of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the 2001 NPB draft. By 2003 he was in the Hawks starting rotation and he had his best season in 2005 when he went 18-4 with a 2.11 ERA and 218 strikeouts in 196.2 innings. He left the Hawks for the Giants as a free agent following the 2011 season. He threw a no-hitter against the Eagles in 2012. He injured his hip during the 2015 season and despite having surgery has never been able to make it back to the ichi-gun team. He has been named as one of the pitching coaches for the Giants farm team for 2019.
Sugiuchi was named Pacific League MVP in 2005. He lead the league in wins and winning percentage that year and led the league in strikeouts in 2008 and 2009. He also led the Central League in strikeouts in 2012. He won the Sawamura Award in 2005 and was named "Best Pitcher" in 2009 and 2010. He was named to the Best 9 team in 2005 and made the All Star team seven times (2005, 2007-12). He played in three Nippon Series (2003, 2011 and 2013) and was named MVP of the 2003 Series and won an "Outstanding Player Award" for the 2011 Series. (A shoulder injury prevented him from appearing in the 2012 Series.) He pitched for the Japan National Team on five different occasions - the 2000 and 2008 Olympics and the 2006, 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classics.
Because he was still an amateur when he played in the 2000 Olympics, Sugiuchi is one of the rare players to have a "pre-rookie" card in Japan as he had a card in the 2000 Upper Deck Sydney Olympic Games Japanese Team Cards set. His first BBM and Calbee cards were both from 2002 - card #235 in BBM's 1st Version set and card #N-14 in the "New Faces" subset from Calbee.
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| 2000 Upper Deck Sydney Olympic Games Japanese Team Cards #221 |
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| 2002 BBM 1st Version #235 |
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| 2003 BBM Nippon Series #55 |
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| 2006 BBM 1st Version #433 |
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| 2007 Hawks "Club Hawks" #110-RB-18 |
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| 2009 Konami Baseball Heroes WBC #W09R097 |
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| 2010 BBM All Stars #A36 |
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| 2012 BBM No-Hitters #81 |
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| 2015 Calbee #130 |
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| 2018 BBM Giants #G06 |
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