RIP Tony Blanco

Devastating news out of the Dominican Republic today - a roof collapse at a night club in Santo Domingo has left at least 66 people dead and over 150 injured.  Among the dead were merengue musician Rubby Pérez who was on stage when the roof collapsed; Nelsy Cruz, governor of the Montecristi province and sister of former MLB star Nelson Cruz; former MLB player Octovio Dotel and former MLB and NPB player Tony Blanco.

Blanco spent about ten years in the Red Sox, Reds, Nationals and Rockies organizations with only a brief, 56 games stint in the majors with the Nationals in their inaugural 2005 season.  He joined the Dragons in 2009 as a replacement for Tyrone Woods and homered in his first NPB at bat on Opening Day against Daisuke Miura of the Baystars.  He led the Central League in home runs (39) and RBIs (110) that season, was selected for the All Star game and won a Best 9 award.  He again hit over 30 home runs in 2010 and again made the All Star team.  His performance tailed off somewhat the two years (definitely due to injury in 2012 but maybe also in 2011) - although he won a second Best 9 award in 2012 and was again selected for the All Star team although he declined to participate - and he left Nagoya for Yokohama after the 2012 season.

He had an amazing first season with DeNA in 2013, leading the Central League in batting (.333) and RBIs (136) while also hitting 41 home runs.  He probably would have won the Triple Crown had that not been the season that Wladimir Balentien hit 60 home runs.  He won his third and final Best 9 award that year and was once again selected for the All Star team.

Muscle strains in his legs plagued him in 2014, ultimately limiting him to only 85 games.  His performance when healthy resulted in yet another All Star team selection but he lost his spot in the starting lineup to Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh late in the season.

He moved on to the Orix Buffaloes, signing a two year contract in December of 2014.  Injuries limited him to only 52 ichi-gun appearances in 2015 and only 27 in 2016 (I remember that his only card in the 2016 BBM 1st Version set was the Buffaloes team checklist showing him standing in the dugout with a stabilizing boot on his left foot).  He and Orix parted ways when his contract was over and his final days as an active player came in a 7 game stint with Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Winter League during the 2016-17 season.

Here's a bunch of his cards - I picked at least one for each of the eight years he played in Japan:

2009 Calbee Series Two #180

2010 BBM All Stars #A19

2011 BBM 2nd Version #576

2012 Calbee Series Three #186

2013 BBM 1st Version #149

2013 Front Runner Baystars Season Summary #03

2014 SCM Cosmic Cross #SCM23/#SCM276

2015 Calbee Series Two #098

2016 BBM 1st Version #329

2016 BBM Buffaloes #Bs54

I was fortunate enough to see Blanco play in an open-sen game for the Baystars against the Dragons on my first trip to Japan in March of 2013.  I think it might have been his first game in Yokohama as a member of the Baystars but I don't know that for sure.  I do know that he hit a home run completely out of Yokohama Stadium that afternoon - it was a windy afternoon and the Baystars had four home runs that day along with one by the Dragons but Blanco's was the only one to leave the ballpark.

There was one thing I saw that day that I didn't understand until today.  "Blanco" is similar to the Japanese word "buranko" which means "swing" (as in "swing set") so he was more or less known as "Swing" in Japan.  Which explains this t-shirt I saw for sale at the Baystars shop that day: