Tragic news out of Venezuela yesterday - former major league baseball players Jose Castillo and Luis Valbuena were killed in a car accident that was apparently caused by bandits who then robbed them.
Castillo came up in the Pirates organization and played for them from 2004 to 2007. He split 2008 between the Giants and Astros and spent 2009 in Taiwan playing for the Uni-President Lions. He spent 2010 in Japan playing for the Yokohama Baystars. He began 2011 in Mexico playing for the Diablos Rojos del Mexico but made a mid-season return to Japan, landing on the other side of Tokyo Bay with the Chiba Lotte Marines. He spent the next five years in the Mexican League and has been playing winter ball in his native Venezuela since at least the 2006-07 season (the earliest season Baseball-Reference has player rosters and stats for that league).
Castillo had a number of baseball cards with the Baystars in 2010 but I only know of one of him with the Marines from 2011 - it's from BBM's set celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Lotte's move to Chiba and being renamed the Marines.
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| 2010 BBM 1st Version #205 |
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| 2010 BBM 2nd Version #613 |
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| 2011 BBM Marines 20th Anniversary #30 |
1 comment:
That is really sad! Such a tragedy...
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