The Yokohama DeNA Baystars defeated the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks today 11-2 in Game 6 of the Nippon Series to win the Series four games to two. It was the Baystars' first championship since 1998 and only the third in their history. Their championship leaves the Hiroshima Toyo Carp as the sole NPB team to not win a championship in the 21st century.
I was somewhat amused when I realized that the last team to employ a certain pitcher in both MLB and NPB won their respective championships this year.
BBM used to issue a box set for the Nippon Series from 1991 until 2012 that included all the players who appeared in the Series as well as cards for the the Series MVP, the "Fighting Spirit" award winner (kind of a "MVP for the losing team" award) and the three "Outstanding Player" award winners. Since BBM no longer publishes this set, I've been featuring those award winners in the first "Card Of The Week" post following the end of the Series since 2014 (since I didn't know they weren't going to do a set in 2013):
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| Series MVP Masayuki Kuwahara (2024 Topps NPB #148) |
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| "Fighting Spirit" Kenta Imamiya (2024 Epoch NPB #237) |
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| "Outstanding Player" Andre Jackson (2024 BBM 1st Version #063) |
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| "Outstanding Player" Anthony Kay (2024 BBM Baystars #DB35) |
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| "Outstanding Player" Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh (2024 BBM 2nd Version #CE45) |
It's a pretty amazing way for Tsutsugoh to end his season considering it started with him getting released by the San Francisco Giants in March. He had rejoined the Baystars in April and made his ichi-gun debut in May.
Also on Monday of last week, this year's Korean Series wrapped up with the Kia Tigers defeating the Samsung Lions in five games. Kia infielder Kim Sun-bin was named MVP of the Series:
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| 2018 SCC KBO Collection 2 Black #SCCR-02B/012 |
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