Card Of The Week September 22

BBM celebrated Hideki Matsui's departure for MLB after the 2002 season by publishing a 55 card boxed set called "The Legend Of Hideki Matsui".  There's a card in the set (#31) showing Matsui in action during the 1996 MLB All Star series and both sides of the card show an MLB player along with him.  Here's both sides of the card:

The player on the back of the card is obviously Alex Rodriguez, then still a Seattle Mariner but I wasn't sure who the player on the front was.  But a few months back I picked up "Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volume II: 1960-2019" which covered the 1996 tour and included a roster for the MLB team.  It should have been obvious but that's Ivan Rodriguez of the Rangers.  The only other catchers on the team were Mike Piazza of the Dodgers and Tom Pagnozzi of the Cardinals and I'm pretty confident it's not either of them.  It's kind of funny that not only do the two MLB players share the same surname but they would both be future teammates of Matsui with the Yankees - although he and Pudge would only share a dugout for 33 games in 2008.  The card itself doesn't mention either Rodriguez - instead it talks about Cal Ripken, Barry Bonds and Piazza.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately - I've been away from home for most of the past week.