Hiroyuki Nakajima

Long time NPB star Hiroyuki Nakajima officially announced his retirement a few weeks ago.  He'd been hoping to continue playing after being released by Chunichi last fall but, with the beginning of the new season, his first in 25 years that he wasn't on the roster for a professional team, the 42 year old decided to hang up his spikes.

Nakajima had been the fifth round pick of the Seibu Lions in the 2000 draft out of Hyogo Prefectural Itamikita High School.  He spent most of his first few seasons on Seibu's farm team as Kazuo Matsui was firmly entrenched as the starting shortstop on the ichi-gun squad.  When Matsui left for the Mets in 2004, though, Nakajima had an opportunity to replace him and he made the most of it, hitting .287 with 29 home runs and 90 RBIs.  He made the All Star team and helped the Lions win the Nippon Series despite finishing second - it was the first year that the Pacific League had a playoff system.

He put up good numbers over the following eight seasons, making the All Star team in every season except 2005 (when he missed time with a broken cheekbone from getting hit by a batted ball).  He won four Best 9 awards (2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012) and three Golden Glove awards (2008, 2011 and 2012) and led the Pacific League in hits in 2009 and OBP in 2008 and 2009.  He helped the Lions win another Nippon Series in 2008 and played for the National Team in both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Nakajima wanted to play in MLB and asked the Lions to post him following the 2011 season.  The Yankees won the bidding for him but he and New York failed to come to an agreement.  He returned to the Lions for one final season in 2012 before leaving as a free agent and signing with the Oakland Athletics.

He played poorly in spring training in 2013 and started the season on the disabled list.  The A's sent him to their Triple-A team in Sacramento when he was healthy again and he spent the entire season with the River Cats.  He started the 2014 season back in Sacramento but, after only hitting .128 in 12 games, he was demoted to Oakland's Double-A team in the Texas League, the Midland Rockhounds.  He spent the rest of the season with Midland and, frustrated by not being able to get promoted to the majors, decided to return to Japan.

He talked with three teams upon his return to Japan - his two "hometown" teams of the Tigers and Buffaloes as well as the Lions.  He ultimately signed with Orix which reunited him with an elementary school teammate - Katsuki Yamazaki.  

He wasn't the same player after he returned to Japan.  He had hit over .300 in six of the seven seasons before he headed to the US but never reached that number after he came back.  He was slowed some by injuries but being in his 30's (and later 40's) probably didn't help.  

He spent four seasons with Orix before joining the Giants as a free agent in 2019.  After five seasons in Tokyo, he moved to Nagoya for 2024 and spent most of last season on the Dragons' farm team.

Nakajima's rookie card was #426 from the 2001 BBM set.  His only other 2001 card was from the Broccoli Lions set (#065).  He didn't have any cards that I know of in 2002 (although I'd be willing to bet he had a card in a Lions team-issued set) and his only known 2003 card was in BBM's first comprehensive Lions team set.  He started appearing in many card sets in 2004 - getting into both of BBM's flagship sets (1st and 2nd Version) as well as appearing on his first Calbee (#081 in Series Two) and Konami cards.  Here's a bunch of his cards:

2001 BBM #426

2001 Broccoli #065

2004 BBM Nippon Series #19

2005 SCM #49

2006 BBM 2nd Version #M02

2007 Lions "Special Card 2007" #3

2008 BBM 2nd Version #694

2009 Topps 2 WBC #BCS4

2010 BBM 1st Version #448

2011 BBM All Stars #A27

2012 Epoch TCP Lions #SL-02

2013 BBM 1st Version #375

2015 BBM Classic #009

2016 Calbee Series One #025

2017 Epoch Pacific League #48

2018 BBM 1st Version #092

2019 BBM Giants #G70

2020 Calbee Series Two #109

2021 BBM 1st Version #174

2022 Topps NPB #37

2023 Epoch NPB #342

2024 BBM 1st Version #148

My friend Justin of Charm City Autographs gave me a card a while back that Nakajima signed for him in Sacramento.  He said that it's a terrible autograph but "Believe it or not, that was probably one of the better autographs that I got from him":

2012 BBM 1st Version #382

Certainly doesn't look as good as the facsimile autographs on the 2005 and 2019 cards.