We're in the middle of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Last weekend saw Nicaragua and Taiwan finish first and second in the qualifying round held in Taiwan and this afternoon another qualifier will kick off in Tucson, Arizona. Brazil, China, Colombia and Germany will play in the Arizona round with the top two teams qualifying for the WBC.
As far as I can tell, there were/are only four current or former NPB players on the rosters for any of the teams in the two qualifiers. Taiwan had two NPB development players on their pitching staff - Sun Yi-Lei of the Fighters and Hsu Siang-Sheng of the Swallows (who was drafted under the name "Shosei Takahashi" and has the registered name of simply "Shosei"). Brazil has both a former and current NPB player on their pitching staff with former Carp Oscar Nakaoshi (whose registered name in NPB was just "Oscar") and current Lion Bo Takahashi, both of whom are Brazilians of Japanese descent. Here's cards of all four players:
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| 2024 Epoch Fighters Premier Edition #25 |
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| 2024 BBM Fusion "Rookie Edition Update" #136 |
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| 2016 BBM Carp Realization Of A Great Ambition #03 (Oscar Nakaoshi) |
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| 2024 BBM Lions #L20 |
Additionally, Brazil is managed by former Swallow Daniel Yuichi Matsumoto. Like Nakaoshi and Takahashi, Matsumoto was born in Brazil and is Brazilian-Japanese. He joined the Swallows in 1999 but spent most of his first few years on the farm team. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2004 which may explain why he didn't have a baseball card until then (although it's more likely because that was the first year BBM did a "comprehensive" team set for Yakult that included everyone on the team's roster). He was a backup outfielder and first baseman throughout his career and became a coach for the team when he retired after the 2015 season.
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| 2015 Epoch Swallows Victory Memorial #27 |
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