Card Of The Week December 25

There have been two NPB players with the name "Koichi Ogata".  The older of the two of them was born on September 2nd, 1968 and played for the Giants for the 12 years between 1987 and 1998.  He's also coached for the Giants, Fighters and Swallows since he retired.  The other Ogata is somewhat better known as he had a 22 year career with the Carp from 1988 to 2009 and then managed the team for five years from 2015 to 2019, leading them to three consecutive Central League titles during that time.  The younger Ogata was born on December 25th, 1968 so I always think of him as "Christmas Ogata" when I'm adding one of his cards to my database - like this one that I just picked up in a big lot of Calbee cards from the 00's:

2007 Calbee #095

So Happy 54th Birthday to Koichi Ogata and Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates!