Hirokazu Sawamura

Former Yomiuri Giants, Chiba Lotte Marines and Boston Red Sox pitcher Hirokazu Sawamura was another player who retired at the end of last season.  I'd written a post about him when he departed for Boston after the 2020 season so this is going to be kind of an abbreviated summary of his career.

As the earlier post says, Sawamura was the Giants' first pick in the 2010 NPB draft out of Chuo University.  He was Central League Rookie Of The Year in 2011 and was in the Giants starting rotation for a few years before injuries forced him into a bullpen role.  He became the team's closer and led the Central League in saves in 2016 with 37.  He struggled with injuries in the late teens and was traded to the Marines late in the 2020 season.

He left for Boston that winter and spent two seasons in the Red Sox bullpen.  He didn't pitch two well but he was released shortly before the end of the 2022 season.  He returned to Japan and rejoined the Marines.  He spent the past three seasons in Lotte's bullpen with somewhat mixed results and at the end of last season, the Marines decided to part ways with the 37 year old.  He had originally intended to continue playing but decided last December that he'd retire instead.

Here's a selection of his baseball cards.  I wanted to pick cards that I hadn't show in the previous post so there's only one of his 2011 cards here - check out the other post for information on his rookie cards.

2011 BBM 2nd Version #601

2011 Giants Winning Game Card #68

2012 Calbee Series Two #125

2014 BBM Giants #G004

2016 BBM Fusion #122

2019 Epoch NPB #291

2024 Topps Stadium Club NPB #208

I have a certified autographed card of him from his days with the Red Sox and I have to say that's one of the worst autographs I've ever seen on a card:

2022 Topps Baseball Japan Edition #TJA-HS

I really like his Randy Arozarena impression on this 2023 Epoch One card:

2023 Epoch One #154

2023 Topps Now WBC #WBC-49

Shingo Kawabata

Back to the recent retirees...

Longtime Tokyo Yakult Swallow Shingo Kawabata hung up his spikes after a twenty year career.  Kawabata was the team's third round pick in the high school player portion of the 2005 NPB draft out of Wakayama Municipal Commercial High School.  It took him a couple seasons to establish himself as a regular with the Swallows but, when healthy, he was a key member of the team for much of the 2010's.

That "when healthy" caveat is carrying a lot of weight here.  I think after he became a regular with the team, he managed to only have a couple seasons in which he didn't miss time due to an injury.  His litany of injuries included a fractured ring finger (2007), a right shoulder injury (2009), "left wrist pain" (2011), left ankle (2013), broken foot (2016), herniated disk (2017), concussion (2018) and back (2019).  

His best season was 2015 when he led the Central League in batting with a .336 average and hits with 195.  He won his only Best 9 and Golden Glove awards that year and won a Climax Series MVP award while helping the Swallows to the Nippon Series (which they lost to the Hawks).  He made his only All Star appearances in 2015 and 2016.  His sole appearance with Samurai Japan was in the 2015 Premier 12, although he was mostly a backup to Nobuhiro Matsuda in the tournament.

His last few seasons with the Swallows saw him mostly in a pinch hitting role.  He's now the hitting coach for the Swallows' farm team.

His good looks led him to be nicknamed "Prince Of Swallows" but his tendency for injuries caused him to also be dubbed "Prince Of Glass".

His rookie cards were all 2006 BBM issues - Rookie Edition (#74), 1st Version (#359) and the Swallows team set (#TY56).  His first Calbee card wasn't until 2011 - #215 from Series Three.  Here's a bunch of his cards (including all three rookies):

2006 BBM Rookie Edition #74

2006 BBM 1st Version #359

2006 BBM Swallows #TY56

2007 BBM 1st Version #312

2010 Bandai Owners League 04 #032

2011 Swallows Team Set #YsS18

2013 Calbee Series Two #089

2015 Sports Graphic Number Swallows 

2016 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-24

2018 BBM Swallows #S45

2020 Epoch NPB #415

2022 BBM Swallows #S44

2024 BBM 1st Version #123

Kawabata's younger sister Yuki is arguably the better of the two baseball playing siblings as she had a stellar career in the Japan Women's Baseball League (JWBL) as well as being one of the corner stones of Madonna Japan, the women's national team that has dominated the Women's Baseball World Cup for the past two decades.  Here's a card showing the two of them together (or together-ish at least since it's two separate photos):

2018 BBM Infinity #096