Card Of The Week October 8

There were a couple different stories in the news this week that I wanted to quickly mention.  First up, on Wednesday Samurai Japan announced that former Dragons and Giants player Hirokazu Ibata was named their new manager (which means my post about Kimiyasu Kudoh getting the job was incorrect).  Ibata will be the manager for the team for the 2024 Premier 12 tournament and then a decision will be made if he'll continue for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.  Ibata played on the National Team a couple of times - the 2001 & 2002 IBAF World Cups and the qualifiers for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics but the only time he was in one of the "big" tournaments was the 2013 World Baseball Classic.  Here's a card of him from the 2003 Asian Championship, a qualifier for the 2004 Athens Olympics:

2003 BBM Japan National Team #20

Tatsunori Hara stepped down as manager of the Yomiuri Giants after leading the team to "B" class finishes two years in a row, a first in the team's history.  Hara was the longest tenured NPB manager, having managed the team for the past five seasons.  It was his third stint with the team - he's managed the Giants for all but five of the last twenty-two seasons.  Shingo Takatsu of the Swallows is now the longest tenured NPB manager and there doesn't appear to be any other managerial changes expected - even though I can think of at least two teams that REALLY need to make them.  Hara is being replaced by Shinnosuke Abe, who's spent the past few years being groomed for the position.  Here's a card of Hara from the 2020 BBM Giants History 1934-2020 set that my scanner apparently insists on scanning crooked:

2020 BBM Giants History 1934-2020 #69

The last bit of news I wanted to pass on was that Emi Taniho, the public address announcer for the Chiba Lotte Marines, was stepping down after 33 years.  It took a little bit to click with me that she'd been with the team longer than they'd been the Marines or in Chiba - her first year was 1991 when the team still played across Tokyo Bay in Kawasaki and were called the Lotte Orions.  The team held a ceremony for her after the last regular season game yesterday and the fans were able to express their appreciation for her.  Her retirement made me think of some of the great PA announcers from MLB like Sherm Feller at Fenway Park, Bob Sheppard at Yankee Stadium and especially Rex Barney, the voice of both Memorial Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards for almost 30 years.  Rex passed away suddenly in the middle of the 1997 season and was never able to have the kind of send off that Taniho had - at least not when he was around to enjoy it.  

Taniho had a card in last year's BBM Fusion set celebrating her 2000th game behind the microphone.  I've shared this card a couple of times on Twitter this past week but I thought I'd show it again.  It's very shiny so it doesn't scan well:

2022 BBM Fusion "Great Record" #GR16