Japanese Baseball Cards: Yoshio Itoi

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Yoshio Itoi

Well, I've put it off for as long as I could but it's finally time to start doing the posts for the players who retired at the end of last season. I'd been planning on getting to it sooner but the Calbee History posts kind of ate up all the available time I had for blogging. I've got a list of maybe 14 guys to do but I'm sure I'll discover that there were other players who retired that I hadn't heard about. First up is Yoshio Itoi.

Itoi had been the ace pitcher for Kinki University. He was originally signed by the Fighters in the "free acquisition phase" of the 2003 NPB draft. This was basically a way that he and the team could come to a pre-draft agreement and not have to worry about another team picking him - although doing so cost the Fighters their first and third round picks in the draft.

The Fighters took him as a pitcher and he spent his first two seasons with them pitching on the farm team, going 8-9 with 3 saves and a 4.86 ERA. Shigeru Takada, the Fighters GM, decided to convert him to be an outfielder in 2006 and he adjusted quickly enough to win the Eastern League monthly MVP award for September of that season. He made his ichi-gun debut the following April although he spent most of the season back with the farm team due to injuries. He was the Opening Day left fielder in 2008 but again missed much of the season with injury. Finally healthy in 2009, he had a four season stretch of hitting above .300 with the Fighters.

During the 2012-13 off season, he reportedly asked the Fighters to post him to MLB. Instead the team surprised everyone by dealing him and pitcher Tomoya Yagi to the Orix Buffaloes for Hiroshi Kisanuki, Keiji Ohbiki and Shogo Akada. He continued to hit well with Orix, hitting over .300 in three of his four years in Osaka. He was named team captain in 2016, a season in which he fought elbow and ankle injuries to stay in the lineup (and was the only season with the Buffaloes that he didn't hit .300).

He left Orix as a free agent after the 2016 season and moved to the other Kansai team - the Hanshin Tigers. His first couple seasons with the Tigers were productive although he missed some time with injuries. The injuries and his advancing age began to take its toll by 2020 and his playing time started to drop off. This past season he only hit .227 in 62 games with the top team and he decided to call it a career.

He led the Pacific League in batting once (2014), steals once (2016) and OBP three times (2011, 2012 & 2014). He made the All Star team 10 times between 2009 and 2018, was elected to the Best 9 team five times (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 & 2016) and won seven Golden Gloves (2009-2014, 2016). He played in two Nippon Series with the Fighters, losing to the Giants in both 2009 and 2012. His two seasons pitching on the farm team probably cost him his shot at getting 2000 hits as he finished his career with 1755. He also played for Japan in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Itoi's first cards are from the 2004 BBM Rookie Edition (#27) and 1st Version (#150) sets. He didn't show up in another BBM flagship set until 2009 but he's been in every 1st and 2nd Version set since then. His first Calbee card was also in 2009 (#129) and he's had at least one card in every Calbee set since then. Here's some of his cards: