Hawks catcher Takuya Kai played in his 1000th career game yesterday, making him the first player in NPB history to reach that milestone after beginning his career as a development (
ikusei) player (H/T
NPB Reddit). Kai was taken in the sixth round of the
ikusei phase of the 2010 draft (right after the Hawks took Kodai Senga and Taisei Makihara, making it probably the best development player draft by a team in history) and wasn't promoted to the team's 70 man roster until after the 2013 season. The three time All Star has done pretty well for himself since then, having won six Golden Glovesand three Best 9 awards.
BBM still included the ikusei players in their team sets while Kai was a member of their ranks (he went by "Takuya" then) and I happen to have all three of his cards from this stretch:
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| 2011 BBM Hawks #H78 |
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| 2012 BBM Hawks #H77 |
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| 2013 BBM Hawks #H53 |
You can tell he's ikusei because he has a three digit number - 130 - although his uniform number is not listed on the front his 2011 card.
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