Japanese Baseball Cards: Shoitsu Ohmatsu

Friday, February 7, 2020

Shoitsu Ohmatsu

Shoitsu Ohmatsu announced his retirement back in September. Ohmatsu was a bit of star at Tokai University and was the captain of the Collegiate National Team in 2004. He was a fifth round pick of the Chiba Lotte Marines in the fall 2004 draft and played briefly with the top team in 2005. His playing time with the ichi-gun level picked up in the next two seasons before he had his breakthorugh year in 2008. He played in 134 games that year and hit .262 with 24 home runs and 91 RBIs. He did particularly well with the bases loaded that year, hitting .571 with three grand slams. He made his only All Star team that year although he was not on the initial team but was named to the team after Hiroshi Shibahara declined to play (which is why he's not in BBM's All Star set that year).

He followed that up with two more solid seasons as a regular outfielder although towards the end of the 2010 season his offensive numbers had declined enough that he was first dropped to the bottom of the lineup and then was effectively benched in the Nippon Series that year. He started Game One batting seventh and playing left field and hit a double in the second inning but was immediately replaced by pinch runner Yoshifumi Okada. He didn't make another appearance in the entire Series, not even Game Six which ended in a 15 inning 2-2 tie and featured 22 separate Marines players.

His numbers didn't rebound in 2011 and he spent half the season with the farm team while the team went with Katsuya Kakunaka and rookie Shota Ishimine in the outfield . Ohmatsu shifted to first base in 2012 but his offensive woes still kept him on the ni-gun squad in Urawa the majority of the time over the next few years. He tore his right Achilles tendon in May of 2016 and missed the rest of the season. The Marines released him in late 2016.

The Swallows gave Ohmatsu a tryout during training camp in 2017 and he made the team. He got into 94 games with the top team that year, mostly as a pinch hitter and late inning replacement. He didn't very well (just .162) but he did manage to have two pinch hit sayonara home runs that season, only the fourth player in NPB history (and first since 1977) to manage that feat. He spent all of 2018 with the farm team and was released after the season ended. He spent 2019 with the Fukui Miracle Elephants of the independent Baseball Challenge League. He suffered a knee injury late in the season and announced his retirement shortly afterwards. He'll be a coach with the Swallows farm team this season.

His first cards were with BBM in 2005. He appeared in Rookie Edition (#22), 1st Version (#163) and the Marines team set (#M058) that season. His first Calbee card was #196 in 2006. Here's several of his cards: