Card Of The Week February 13

Thought it'd be appropriate to have a football-related post this week.  Former Yokohama DeNA Baystars infielder Takehiro Ishikawa retired from baseball last year but that didn't mean he was going to stop being a professional athlete - he's now a football player!  And by "football", I don't mean soccer, I mean American football.  Last spring Ishikawa joined the Nojima Sagamihara Rise, a team in the X-League, Japan's top level American football league (not to be confused with the XFL).  He signed on as a wide receiver.  I don't know anything about how well he played though - about all I know is he caught a pass in the team's first game of the season against the Fujitsu Frontiers.  I have no idea how much he played - I looked through the game reports on their website and his name only comes up with the reception in that first game.  His bio on their website can be seen here.

I found a video that I think the Baystars produced that shows his preseason with the Rise as well as the catch he made against the Frontiers (fun fact - the stadium the game was played in is Kawasaki Stadium, the former home of the Taiyo Whales from 1955-77 and the Lotte Orions from 1978-91.  It was rebuilt as a football stadium in the early 00's):

And just to show that Japanese football is taking a page from Japanese baseball, you can buy a t-shirt commemorating Ishikawa's catch on the team's on-line store.  

Here's a card of Ishikawa from his Baystars days (doesn't look like the Rise have any trading cards):

2012 BBM 1st Version "Cross Blaze" #CB101