Japanese Baseball Cards: Eiichi Koyano

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Eiichi Koyano

Another player who retired at the end of the season was former Fighters and Buffaloes infielder Eiichi Koyano. Koyano was a fifth round pick of the Fighters out of Soka University in the fall 2002 draft. He made his debut with the ichi-gun team in the 2003 season but he didn't become a regular for the team until 2007 - part of the delay was due to panic attacks he suffered during the 2006 season. His best season was 2010 when he hit .311 with 16 home runs and a Pacific League leading 109 RBIs. He made the All Star team for the only time that season and was also named to the Best 9 team. He spent about seven years as the Fighters' regular third (and sometimes first) baseman (2007-13) but was slowed by injuries in 2014 and missed roughly half of the season. He left Hokkaido as a free agent after 2014 and signed with the Orix Buffaloes. He missed much of his first two seasons in Osaka with injuries but bounced back to play a full season in 2017. He ended up hurt much of 2018 however and decided to retire.

Koyano won Golden Glove awards three times (2009-10 & 2012) and played on the losing side in three Nippon Series (2007, 2009 and 2012), winning an "Outstanding Player" award in the 2009 Series.

His first BBM cards were #80 from the 2003 Rookie Edition set and #338 from the 2003 1st Version set. His first Calbee card wasn't until 2007 - #224. He had at least two Konami cards before his first Calbee card.