2020 Indy Ball Cards

Ryan included some cards from a couple Japanese independent league teams in the big box he sent me a couple weeks back.  One of these was a team I'd gotten cards from before while the other was from a team (and a league) that I hadn't.

First up is the more familiar team.  I've got a soft spot for the Shikoku Island League for a number of reasons, not the least of which having seen their All Stars play in the Can-Am League in 2015, 2016 and 2019.  I had picked up the Kochi FIghting Dogs team set in 2017 when Manny Ramirez played for them and decided it might be fun to get their 2020 set.

Like the 2017 edition, the 2020 team set looks very much like a US minor league team set from the 1990's.  I feel like it's just missing an ad on the back for a local fast food place that sponsored the set.  My set is not complete as I only have 29 cards out of 30.  I think Ryan swiped card #19 for his card type collection which is fine with me.

There was a lot of turnover in the roster between 2017 and 2020 as the only player who appears in both sets is Sanfo Lassina, the first professional baseball player from Burkina Faso in West Africa:

#28

There was one other name that may be recognizable among the players - pitcher Daichi Ishii was the eighth round pick of the Hanshin Tigers in the fall 2020 draft so this is a rare Japanese "pre-rookie" card:

#07

Ishii is one of five players in the set who were on the 2019 Can-Am League team roster.  The others are Junya Michihara, Tsuyoshi Furuya, Katsuya Yamazaki and Shonosuke Hama.  Two other Kochi players from that team apparently were no longer with them last year - Kensuke Miura and Yuki Takai.

One big difference between this set and the 2017 one is there's no foreign players in the 2020 set (for pretty obvious reasons).  In addition to Ramirez, the 2017 had three Americans, two Koreans and two players from Taiwan.

Here's some other example cards from the set:

#13

#30

#04

There is one guy besides Sanfo in the set who was in the 2017 set.  Manager Toyohiko Yoshida was a coach on the 2017 team:

#01

Yoshida had a 20 year career with the Hawks, Tigers, Kintetsu Buffaloes and Eagles.  The two coaches for the team, Chiaki Sadaoka and Hironori Suguro - also played in NPB.  Sadaoka spent 14 seasons with the Nankai Hawks and Suguro played for the Giants, Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes during his 12 year career:

#02

#03

The other team that Ryan sent me cards from is the Hyogo Blue Sandars of the Kansai Independent League.  These cards were issued by AIAIO which put out a lot of cards for the Japan Women's Baseball League.  They were apparently available as single cards on the team's website.  Ryan picked up a couple for me - at 280 yen a card, I really wasn't interested in getting a complete set.  I don't know who either of these guys are - they have not played in NPB at all:

I do like the 1981 Topps John Pacella feel to Fujiyama's card!