Shogo Akiyama Of The Cincinnati Reds

Lions outfielder Shogo Akiyama has signed a three year deal with the Cincinnati Reds.  Akiyama was the Lions third pick in the 2010 draft out of Hachinohe Gakuin University.  He made his debut with the ichi-gun team on Opening Day, April 12th, 2011 (Opening Day was pushed back a couple weeks that season due to the March 11th earthquake) and got his first professional hit the next day.  He bounced around between the farm team and the ichi-gun team some his first few seasons but he had a breakout season in 2015 when he broke the NPB single season record for hits (held by Matt Murton with 214).  He hit .359 that season which I think was second only to Yuki Yanagita's .363.  He's been a mainstay in the Lions's lineup ever since although his average has dropped a bit as his power numbers have increased.  He's a five time All Star (2015-19), been named to the Best 9 team four times (2015, 2017-19) and won six Golden Gloves  (2013,2015-19).  He won the Pacific League batting crown in 2017 and has led the league in hits four times (2015 - obviously, 2017-19).  He's played for Samurai Japan in the 2015 Premier 12 and the 2017 World Baseball Classic - he would have played in this past fall's Premier 12 but he broke his foot in a pre-tournament exhibition game and had to drop out.

His first card was #014 in the 2011 BBM Rookie Edition set.  His other appearances in 2011 sets include the 1st Version (#051). 2nd Version (#490) and Lions team set (#L67 and #L81) from BBM, the Series Two set (#86) from Calbee and the Baseball Heroes Opening Version White set (#B11RW023) from Konami.  He's been in every BBM 1st and 2nd Version set and had at least one regular Calbee card every year since 2011.  He is one of only three players to appear in all three of Calbee's Samurai Japan sets (2016, 2017 & 2019) - the other two are Testuto Yamada and Yasuaki Yamasaki.  He also had a card from the 2017 Topps Now Team Japan set (#JPN-7).  As usual, TradingCardDB.com has a fairly good list of his cards.  Here's a selection of them:

2011 BBM Rookie Edition #014

2011 BBM 1st Version #051

2011 BBM 2nd Version #490

2011 SCM #180

2012 Lions Winning Game Card #60

2013 Front Runner Lions Rookies & Young Stars #17

2014 BBM Impact Of Lions Blue #09

2015 Calbee #035

2016 BBM Lions #L78

2017 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-35

2018 Epoch Lions Rookies & Stars #64

2019 Epoch One #461/SL-053