2020 Epoch One

Among the items Ryan picked up for me were a bunch of Epoch One cards from last year.  Just to remind you - Epoch One is the Japanese version of Topps Now.  The cards are made available online for a limited time (3 days) and they only print up as many as are ordered.  Cards are 500 yen (a little less than $5) each including shipping.  For God only knows what reason Epoch only does these cards for a subset of them teams - the Baystars, Dragons, Fighters, Giants, Hawks, Lions, Marines, Swallows and Tigers.  

Some of the cards I asked him to pick up were because of the events highlighted.  Here's pitcher Yuki Nishi of the Tigers homering on Opening Day last year (with the National League adopting the DH last year, the Central League was the only league in the world where pitchers batted in 2020):

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Rookie Toshiya Satoh of the Marines' first career hit was a game winner against the Buffaloes on June 27th: 

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Yuki Nomura of the Fighters got a walk off hit against the Hawks on July 2nd:

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Speaking of rookies getting their first hits, Takaya Ishikawa of the Dragons got his first hit on July12th:

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The Marines and Eagles had a wild game on July 28th where the Marines eventually won 13-12 on a walk off bases loaded hit-by-pitch.  Seiya Inoue hit three home runs in the game:

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On August 6th the Giants were getting slapped around by the Tigers and Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara did something that's extremely rare - he brought in infielder Daiki Masuda to pitch:

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On August 11th, Yuki Yanagita of the Hawks had a bizarre swing against the Buffaloes and ended up somehow hitting a home run on it:

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Yasuhiro Ogawa threw a no-hitter on August 15th:

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Takeya Nakamura of the Lions homered for the 200th time at the Seibu Dome on September 24th:

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I got cards commemorating two walk off grand slams - Munetaka Murakami of the Swallows on July 2nd and Keita Sano of the Baystars on July 24th:

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Some of the other cards I asked him to pick up were because they showed players wearing alternate uniforms - just in case I finally start updating my uniform posts:

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The final card I asked him to pick up for me was just because I thought it was a great photo:

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