RIP Narciso Elvira

Stunning news out of Mexico this morning - former Buffaloes pitcher Narciso Elvira and his 20 year old son Gustavo were murdered yesterday near the town of Medellín de Bravo in the Mexican state of Veracruz.  Elvira, who had briefly played in the majors with the Brewers in 1990, spent the 2000 and 2001 seasons with the then-Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.  He went 6-7 with a 4.64 ERA in 2000 and 1-1 with a 5.47 ERA in 2001 - his 2001 NPB season ended in mid-May.  He later spent the 2002 and 2003 seasons in the KBO playing for the Samsung Lions.

He threw a no-hitter against the Lions on June 20th, 2000.  It was the last no-hitter in Japan in the 20th Century (if you consider the 20th Century running from 1901 to 2000).  He had thrown two no-hitters in the Mexican League in 1999.   UPDATE - I meant to mention that Elvira was the only player from Latin America to have thrown a no-hitter in Japan.  The "fact" that his was the last no-hitter in Japan in the 20th Century comes from his Japanese Wikipedia page.

Elvira did not have any BBM cards in 2000 but he had cards from Calbee, Epoch, Future Bee and Konami.  He had cards from BBM, Konami and Upper Deck in 2001.  As far as I know he never had any cards in Korea.  Here's the three cards of him that I have:

2001 BBM #253

2001 BBM #523

2001 Upper Deck #123