The Tigers and Hawks split the first two games of the 2025 Nippon Series this weekend in Fukuoka, with the Tigers eking out a 2-1 victory in Game One yesterday and the Hawks administering a 10-1 beat down in Game Two today. Ukyo Shuto of the Hawks had five hits today, setting a new record for more hits in an Nippon Series game (H/T NPB Reddit). Here's my periodic reminder that Shuto was originally drafted as an ikusei player by Softbank, who've probably used the development player draft better than any other team to sign talent over the years - the big name, of course, being Kodai Senga. This is Shuto's 2018 BBM Rookie Edition card (#007), the only card I know of showing him as an iuksei player - the three digit uniform number is the giveaway:
It's very likely that there are team-issued cards by the Hawks that show him as a development player but I haven't seen them.
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