Sunday, March 27, 2022

Card Of The Week March 27

For the second time in three years, NPB's Central League has opened the season as the only professional baseball league in the world that has not adopted the Designated Hitter.  Opening Day 2020 featured two home runs by pitchers - one by Yuki Nishi of the Tigers and the other by Daichi Ohsera of the DragonsWhile CL pitchers had a pretty good weekend at the bat this year, only one of them went deep - Akiyoshi Katsuno of the Dragons:


Now that the National League has permanently adopted the DH, it's probably only a matter of time before the Central League adopts it as well.  But they'll still be swinging the bat at least for one more season.

Here's Katsuno's first ever card - a 2018 Epoch One card (#677/CD-081) commemorating the Dragons' press conference that fall where they officially introduced the 2018 draft class:



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