Mamoru Kishida

Orx Buffaloes pitcher Mamoru Kishida retired at the end of the 2019 season.  Like Eishin Soyogi, he spent several years in the corporate leagues after graduating from college - in his case he attended Tohoku Fukushi University and then played for NTT Nishi Nihon.  Also like Soyogi, he was taken in the third round of the University/Corporate League portion of the 2005 draft although he was taken by Orix rather than Hiroshima. 

He spent most of 2006 with the farm team but moved to the ichi-gun team in 2007.  He worked mostly in long relief that year and posted a decent 2.93 ERA in 126 innings.  The Buffaloes moved him to the starting rotation in 2009 and he went 4-1 with a 2.94 ERA in 10 starts in an injury plagued year as he missed time due to back and leg issues.  He made 19 starts in 2009 and went 10-4 with a 3.10 ERA although he again missed time due to injuries, this time to his shoulder.

He started 2010 in the rotation but after six starts (in which he went 1-4 with a 4.45 ERA) the Buffaloes shifted him to the bullpen and eventually to the closer's role where he earned 12 saves.  He made the All Star team that year.  He notched 33 saves in 2011, second in the Pacific League, and earned a spot on the All Star team again.  He started 2012 as the closer but had some ups and downs during the season and ended up missing most of September due to a leg injury.  But he still had 18 saves with a 2.42 ERA in 52 games. 

He lost the closer's role to Yoshihisa Hirano in 2013 but spent most of that season and the next two after that in the bullpen of the top team, apart from a short and ill fated attempt to make a starter out of him again in 2014.  His playing time at the ichi-gun level started to drastically drop off after 2015 though with him only appearing in 16 games in 2016, 4 games in 2017 and 17 games in 2018.  He spent all of 2019 with the farm team except for his appearance in his retirement game on September 29th, striking out the one batter he faced (Tomoki Takata of the Hawks).  He'll be the Buffaloes farm team pitching coach this year.

His first card was #28 in the 2006 BBM Rookie Edition set and he also had cards in their 1st Version (#139), 2nd Version (#708) and Buffaloes (#Bs07) sets that year.  His first Calbee card wasn't until 2008 (#092).  Here's some of his cards:

2006 BBM Rookie Edition ##28

2006 BBM 1st Version #139

2006 BBM Buffaloes #Bs07

2009 BBM 1st Version #041

2011 BBM All Stars #A15

2012 BBM Pedigree #08

2003 Calbee #070

2015 Orix Players Card #18

2019 BBM Buffaloes #B08