RIP Katsuya Nomura

Another of the all time greats from NPB has passed - Katsuya Nomura, long time player and manager (not to mention player-manager) has passed away at age 84.  Jim Allen has already written a wonderful appreciation of Nomura so I'm just going to show a bunch of baseball cards.

Here's a bunch of vintage menko and game cards from the late 50's and early 60's:

1958 Marusho JCM 38a

1958 Yamakatsu JCM 33e (Nomura in center with Tadashi Sugiuchi on the left)

1959 Doyusha Game Set 

1959 Maruta JCM 40

1962 JGA 149

1964 Marusho JCM 11

1964 Marukami JCM 14g

Here's several cards for him from the 1970's, mostly from Calbee.  The first two show the Hawks winning the 1973 Pacific League playoffs, the first pennant that Nomura won as manager (and the last pennant that Nankai ever won).  The third card shows him batting in the 1973 Nippon Series against the Giants.

1973/74 Calbee #355

1973/74 Calbee #356

1973/74 Calbee #336

~1975 Uncataloged Menko

1975/76 Calbee #697

1975/76 Calbee #952

1975/76 Calbee #1113

I think this card shows him getting recognition for being selected to his 20th All Star team before the first All Star game in 1976 on July 17th at Kawasaki Stadium:

1975/75 Calbee #931

He left Nankai after 1977 and joined the Lotte Orions.  As far as I know this is the only card ever issued that shows him with Lotte:

1978 Yamakatsu JY10

He finished his career by spending two seasons with the Seibu Lions:

1979 TCMA #13

Here are cards from his three managerial stints between 1990 and 2009:

1997 BBM Nippon Series #S1

2001 Upper Deck Victory #036

2007 BBM 1st Version #181

Here's a selection of recent OB cards for him.  He went through a stretch in the late 00's to early 10's when he didn't appear much in OB sets but that changed in recent years.

2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #051

2007 BBM HR Chronicle #02

2013 BBM All Star Game Memories 80's #85

2013 BBM Hawks 75th Anniversary #03

2014 BBM 80th Anniversary Batters Edition #91

2018 BBM Hawks 80th Anniversary #05

Finally here's the front and back of a card from the 2018 BBM Infinity set (#092) showing him with his son Katsunori: