Saw some chatter on Twitter recently discussing today's matchup between Hamburg and Bonn in Germany's Bundesliga. Kubo played in NPB for the Marines (2005-08), Tigers (2009-13) and Baystars (2014-17) before moving to North America for a few years to play for Gary of the American Association and Sugarland of the Atlantic League in 2018 and the Bravos de Leon of the Mexican League in 2019. After sitting out two years he pitched for the Hyogo Bravers of the Kansai Independent League last year before signing with Hamburg for this season. Murata played in NPB for the Giants (2008-10) and Fighters (2017-21) and in the Cleveland organization from 2011-16. He doesn't appear to have played anywhere in 2022 until he joined the Auckland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League late in the year.
I haven't been able to find out much about how the game went today - just the final score showing the Bonn beat Hamburg 7-1. No idea how either pitcher did or if they even actually played in the game.
Here's a card of each pitcher from their time in Japan:
 |
| 2005 BBM Weekly Baseball Season Memorial #3/4 |
 |
| 2020 BBM Time Travel 1985 #89 |
2 comments:
I always enjoy seeing veterans who still have a little left in the tank turning up in relatively obscure leagues around the world. They really must love the game to turn the end of their playing career into a world tour of sorts.
The obligatory Googling for Baseball Bundesliga trading cards has come up empty.
Post a Comment