Card Of The Week May 3

I started watching the documentary "Beyond the Game: Samurai 2026 World Baseball Classic" last week on Netflix and I noticed something a little subtle at one point.  It was during Samuri Japan's game against Korea and Seiya Suzuki had just hit his second home run of the game to put Japan up 4-3.  There's a couple shots of the dugout where, if you watch closely, you'll see someone slip in to stand next to Shohei Ohtani.  The next shot shows both Ohtani and that someone raising their right arms in unison.

That someone was Samurai Japan coach Nobuhiro Matsuda, long time Fukuoka Softbank Hawk (and brief Yomiuri Giant).  Matsuda had a post-home run routine of thrusting his right arm in the arm and yelling "Atsuo!" or "Hot Man!".  He and Ohtani were doing the same routine to celebrate Suzuki's home run.

Here's a card for Matsuda's schtick from the "Nickname Catchphrase" insert set from the 2024 BBM Professional Baseball 90th Anniversary set (#NC12):

KBO Asian Quota Players

I had heard that the KBO had introduced an "Asian Quota" slot to their team's rosters this season - a player from another Asian country (basically Japan, Taiwan or Australia) that would not count against the team's foreign player quota - but I hadn't really been tracking who all had been signed.  I had made note of the SSG Landers picking up Shota Takeda a few month back but I hadn't looked at who else got signed until NPB Reddit referenced this article about Yuto Kanakubo of the Kiwoom Heroes earlier this week.  Seven of the ten players signed by the KBO teams have played in NPB although only five of those players are Japanese.  I thought I'd do a quick post about these players:

2023 BBM Swallows #S24

As mentioned above, Yuto Kanakubo was the player the Kiwoom Heroes signed.  He was the Swallows's fifth pick in the 2017 draft out of Tokai University Ichihara Boyo High School and spent his entire NPB career with Yakult.  He's apparently the most successful so far of all the "Asian Quota" players as Kiwoom has just promoted him to be their closer.  (UPDATE - a commenter has pointed out that a couple other players who are mentioned below - Lachlan Wells and Wang Yan-Cheng - are doing much better than Kanakubo and Kanakubo's "success" is relative to Kiwoom's underperforming bullpen)

2021 Epoch Baystars Rookies & Stars #13

Masaya Kyoyama joined the Lotte Giants this year after nine years with the Baystars.  He was DeNA's fourth pick in the 2016 draft out of Omi High School.

2017 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-14

Shota Takeda of the SSG Landers had the most notable NPB career of all these players.  He was taken in the first round of the 2011 draft by the Hawks out of Miyazaki Nihon University High School.  He had a couple really good seasons in their starting rotation in the mid-teens and made the All Star team in 2015.  He also won "Outstanding Player" awards in both the 2014 and 2015 Nippon Series and played for Samurai Japan in both the 2015 Premier 12 and the 2017 World Baseball Classic.  Injuries and ineffectiveness combined to reduce his playing time over the past several years though.

2023 BBM Lions #L16

Ichiro Tamura of the Doosan Bears had been with the Saitama Seibu Lions from when they drafted him in the sixth round of the 2016 draft out of Rikkio University until last season.  He got into 150 games over that period, mostly working in middle relief.

2021 Topps NPB #63

Natsuki Toda had an eventful few years before he signed with the NC Dinos last winter.  He had played baseball at Tokai University Sugao High School but dropped out after suffering an elbow injury.  He took classes through a correspondence school and, after graduating, he joined the Tokushima Indigo Socks of the independent Shikoku Island League.  He spent his first season with them as the closer but moved to the starting rotation in 2020 and led the league in wins and strikeouts.  He was named to the Best 9 team and won the league's MVP award.  The Yomiuri Giants took him in the seventh round of the ikusei portion of the 2020 draft.  He pitched well enough in the first few months of 2021 to get signed to the 70 man roster although he only made three appearances with the top team.  After a somewhat disappointing 2022 season in which he posted an ERA of 6.55, the Giants released him and resigned him to an ikusei contract.  The Giants eventually moved him back to the 70 man roster last season but ultimately released him again at the end of the season.  His stints as a development player have really cut down on his baseball card appearances.  As far as I can tell, he only had four cards from any of the major card manufacturers - 2021 BBM Rookie Edition, 2022 & 2025 BBM Giants and 2021 Topps NPB.

2020 Eagles 1st Version #32

Wang Yan-Cheng of the Hanwha Eagles was only the second Taiwanese player to ever play in KBO.  He had spent six seasons with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles as an ikusei player so he never played with the top team.  Like Toda, his time as a development player limited his baseball cards - he only has six, all from the Eagles' team issued sets (including the last couple that were issued with Epoch).

2018/19 Choice ABL #35

Jarryd Dale of the Kia Tigers is the only one of the "Asian Quota" players who is not a pitcher.  He had spent the 2025 season as an ikusei player with the Orix Buffaloes.  Dale is another former WBC player, having played for Australia in both 2023 and 2026.  I do not know of any cards showing him as a Buffalo - they would have to be team issued cards.

Dale is not the only Australian "Asian Quota" player - former Minnesota Twin and Philadelphia Phillies farm hand Lachlan Wells is with the LG Twins.  Wells had previously played with the Kiwoom Heroes last year, prior to the introduction of the "Asian Quota" slot.  Wells has also played in the World Baseball Classic, suiting up for Team Australia in both the 2017 and 2026 tournaments. 

The final two "Asian Quota" players are both from Japan and had played for independent teams.  Yura Miyaji of the Samsung Lions played for the Tokushima Indigo Socks in 2024 and Kufu HAYATE Ventures Shizuoka (one of the independent teams in NPB's farm leagues) in 2025 while Koki Sugimoto of the KT Wiz was with Tokushima from 2023 to 2025.  (And, yes, I think it's odd that three of the ten players listed here are former Indigo Socks.)

More Cards From Kenny

When I emailed Kenny (Zippy Zappy) a few weeks ago to thank him for the cards he'd sent me, he replied with a promise that another envelope would soon be on its way to me.  That envelope arrived today and it contained five collectible card game cards that covered a 21 year time period.

Three of the cards were Konami issues and, as always, I made my best guess as to which of the bewildering number of Konami sets these are from:

2005 Konami Baseball Heroes Old SP #B05S009

2009 Konami Baseball Heroes Black Edition #B09S046

2012 Konami Baseball Heroes Vol. 2 #C12RS027

The next card was a Bushiroad DreamOrder card from 2024 of then-Lions and now-Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai:

2024 Bushiroad Dream Order Pacific League Booster Pack Vol. 1 #PBP01-L01

To be fair, there's a bewildering number of separate DreamOrder sets as well.  I just find them a little easier to figure out which set any particular card comes from.

The last card was from the new Bandai Fan Stars set.  Specifically, this card is from the Fan Stars set that was distributed with packs of "Kakinotane" - this is the third consecutive year that Bandai has done a set given away with bags of the bar snack - the first two years were the "Pro Baseball Deforme Card Collection" cards that featured caricatures of players.

2026 Bandai Fan Stars Kakinotane #BBK01-15

I have to say that I find the Bandai card pretty attractive for a CCG card,  I find most of the card designs way too busy for my tastes.  But this set seems to have kept the game-related stuff on the front of the card from dominating it.

This not only is my first Fan Stars card but it's my first 2026 card!

As aways, thank you for the cards, Kenny!  I need to go back to Japan just so I can buy you a beer or dinner or both for all your generosity!

Card Of The Week April 26

Last Tuesday was Shugo Maki of the Baystars' 28th birthday and he celebrated the same way he had two other times in his career - he hit a home run.  Maki also homered on his birthday in both 2022 and 2024.  Maki's rookie season was 2021 so he's hit home runs on half of his birthdays that he's spent in NPB.  And, to be fair, the Baystars were off on his birthday in 2025 so he's really done three of five possible times.  Given that he appears to have only been doing it in even numbered years, I'd expect him to do it again in 2028.

Here's a card of Maki from the 2021 BBM Baystars set (#DB71):

H/T NPB Reddit

They Said It Couldn't Be Done

OK, to be honest, "they" in this case is "me".  "It" is redeeming an "exchange card" for an autograph that was pulled from a box of Japanese baseball cards from overseas.

My assumption was always that you couldn't do it from outside of Japan.  To be honest, though, now that I'm thinking back on it, I'm not sure why I made that assumption.  But I've known of a couple people in the US who've pulled exchange cards from busting boxes of BBM cards and my advice to them was always to find someone in Japan who was willing to handle getting the card redeemed for them.

My assumption, however, was apparently not correct.  There was a post on Reddit a few weeks ago from a user from the UK with the handle Carlbertosilva who had recently visited Japan and took in an open-sen (pre-season) game at Tokyo Dome.  He'd picked up a box of 2026 BBM Rookie Edition and pulled a card that could be redeemed for a shikishi (basically a somewhat large cardboard square featuring the player's autograph - Kenny sent me one a few years back) for Hiroki Tsuneya, the first pick of the Fighters in the ikusei portion of last fall's NPB draft.  

Since he didn't know that it was impossible to redeem the card from overseas, he decided to go ahead and try it.  He was rewarded a few weeks later with a package in the mail from BBM containing the shikishi.  He shared photos of the exchange card, the note from BBM and the shikishi on Reddit and I've swiped those images to show here:

The text on the exchange card basically outlines what it is the card is good for and where to send it (via registered mail) to redeem it (along with a bunch of legalese about how you don't get the card back and that BBM isn't responsible if your exchange card gets lost on its way to them or if your shikishi gets damaged in transit).

The note (which I assume came with the shikishi but maybe I should be careful in making any assumptions) basically says "congratulations on winning an autograph", "thanks for buying BBM cards" and "like we said, you don't get the exchange card back".

So there you have it - exchange cards from BBM boxes at least can be redeemed from outside of Japan.  I don't know if that extends to the other card makers or not but, as Carlbertosilva shows, it can't hurt to try.

Thanks to Carlbertosilva for sharing his story and giving me permission to re-share it here.

Cards From Kenny

On Saturday, I received another envelope that Kenny (aka Zippy Zappy) was kind enough to send me from Japan.  As I always say, I'm not sure why Kenny has decided to be so generous to me but I'm happy and grateful that he has.  

This latest envelope contained three cards.  The first two were two more of the Calbee "Pro Yakyu Spirits A" cards like he had previous sent me.   Both of these cards were from the set that came out at the end of January (as opposed to the beginning of last December):

2025 Calbee Pro Yakyu Spirits A #PS-49 (Trey Cabbage)

2025 Calbee Pro Yakyu Spirits A #PS-68 (Kota Tatsu)

The final card was from last year's Topps NPB set and is of Nikita Moiseev, the second pick of the Swallows in the 2024 draft.  Moiseev is kind of an interesting story.  My first thought when I saw this card was that, like Louis Okoye and other players with Western names, one of his parents must have been Japanese.  That's not the case, though, Moiseev's parents are both Russians living in Aichi prefecture.  I don't think he's a Japanese citizen, but because he attended a Japanese high school, he was subject to the NPB draft.  

2025 Topps NPB #197

Moiseev made his ichi-gun debut on Friday, the day before I got his card.

Thanks again for the cards, Kenny!

Card Of The Week April 19

I trying to decide on a topic for this week's "Card Of The Week" and I noticed that Chusei Mannami had hit his league-leading eighth home run today.  Mannami always seems to have good looking cards so I did a quick search on Jambalaya to pick out a good one (and one that I've hopefully not shared before).  While doing so, I discovered something kind of interesting - his cards in the 2024 Topps NPB and Epoch NPB sets used the same photo:

2024 Topps NPB #106

2024 Epoch NPB #331

While I would like to use this as an opportunity to slam Topps, their set was out first.  The 2024 edition of their set was released in late May of that year while the Epoch set didn't come out for another month or so.

I've seen a couple instances of this in the past but I don't know how often it happens.  While I'm curious, I can't think of a what to figure it out that doesn't involve a brute force approach to looking at the cards of 500-ish players for each year and I'm not sure I'm curious enough to do it.