One of the things that was noted with some of the reporting about
Shinnosuke Ogasawara signing with the Nats was that it was the first time that Washington had signed a Japanese pitcher. That's not completely accurate, though, as Hideki Irabu, Masato Yoshii and Tomo Ohka had all played for the franchise in Montreal and Ohka appeared in ten games for the Nats in their first season of 2005. It is true, however, that Ogasawara is the first player that the team has signed directly from Japan as the other three had all played for other MLB teams before joining the Expos.
I had done
a post for Ohka when he retired back in 2017 in which I mentioned that I knew of ten Japanese cards for him, of which I had five. I've since discovered at least one other one (which I have) and I picked up one of the other five that I previously didn't have. They're both from BBM's Baystars team sets - one from 2010 (showing him in the press conference announcing his return to the team after eleven years in North America) and the other from 2011. Both of them have the same card number - #YB22:
