Card Of The Week March 23

About a week or so ago, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows announced that Masanori Ishikawa would be the starting pitcher for their home opener on April 1st.  At 45 years old, Ishikawa is the oldest active player in NPB and is also the active NPB leader in victories with 186.  My favorite bit of trivia about him is that he is the last active member of the Japanese National Baseball Team for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.  He was in his third year at Aoyamagakuin University during the Olympics and would be the Swallows top pick in the 2001 draft*.

*That's really oversimplifying things - he was taken in the "free acquisition phase" of the draft which essentially meant that he and the Swallows agreed to a deal before the actual draft

Here's a team issued card from the Swallows from 2011 when Ishikawa was just 31 years old: