Takumi Akiyama

Long time Hanshin Tigers pitcher Takumi Akiyama announced his retirement back in the middle of September.  Akiyama had been the star player on his Saijo High School squad and led them to the Summer Koshien tournament in 2009.  He beat Yachiyo Higashi in the opening round but Meiho knocked him and the team out in the second round.  The Tigers took him in the fourth round of that fall's draft.

He made his first start with the top team in August of 2010.  He threw a "Maddux" - a complete game shutout on less than 100 pitchs - in his third or fourth start on September 10th.  He ended up going 4-3 with an ERA of 3.35 in seven ichi-gun starts that year.

A neck injury kept him on the farm for most of 2011 but in the off season, the Tigers dispatched him to Australia and the Canberra Cavalry, where he went 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in four starts.  Over the next few years, he would pitch relatively well on the farm but wasn't as effective with the top team.  It wasn't until 2017 that he really blossomed.  He made the team's starting rotation out of training camp and went 12-6 with a 2.99 ERA in 25 starts.  He made the All Star team that season for the first and only time of his career.

He pitched decently in 2018, posting a 3.86 ERA, but a lack of run support resulted in a 5-10 record.  He took matters into his own hands on May 8th, hitting a home run against the Giants while pitching a shutout against them.  He split 2019 between ichi and ni-gun, going 10-2 with a 2.67 ERA on the farm but only 4-3 with a 4.26 ERA with the top team.  He bounced back with two solid years with big league team, going 11-3 with an ERA of 2.89 in 2020 and 10-7, 2.71 in 2021 but injuries, particularly to his right knee,  kept him on the farm for most of 2022 and 2023 and all of 2024.  Akiyama ended his career with over 1000 innings pitched on the farm team which appears to be a record (at least since NPB started keeping track in 1991).

Akiyama's first BBM cards were in the 2010 Rookie Edition (#029) and 1st Version (#142) sets.  He doesn't have his first Calbee card until 2018 Series One (#045).  He ultimately had only five base Calbee cards - two from 2018, two from 2021 and one from 2022.  He also was one of the rare NPB players who wintered in Australia to have an Australian baseball card - #26 in the 2013-13 Select Canberra Cavalry team set.  Here's some of his cards:

2010 BBM Rookie Edition #029

2010 BBM 1st Version #142

2012-13 Select Canberra Cavalry #26

2015 BBM Tigers #T13

2018 Calbee Series Three #ES-08

2022 BBM 1st Version #032

2024 BBM Tigers #T10