Sho Nakata

I've got one final retirement post to do and I've put this off for last because this is one of the few NPB players that I don't like very much.  Admittedly it's hard to get a strong negative opinion of a player from half a world away but Sho Nakata has always come across as kind of a jackass to me.  It was not a huge shock to me when he was suspended in 2021 for "an act of violence against a teammate" which ended his career with the Fighters.  But he was one of the stars of NPB during the 2010's so I felt I really should do a post for him.

While many players make a name for themselves in high school, Nakata actually made a name for himself in JUNIOR high school.   His home runs at Hiroshima Municipal Kokutaiji Junior High School were the stuff of legends and he was recruited by Osaka Toin, the powerhouse high school baseball team.  Nakata went on to hit a then-record 87 home runs over his three years in high school.  He was selected by four teams in the fall 2007 NPB draft and Nippon-Ham won the lottery for his rights over Orix, Hanshin and Softbank.

He spent most of his first three seasons with the Fighters on the farm team but he became a regular with the top team in 2011.  He would play at a high level for the next ten seasons, hitting at least 20 home runs eight times and topping 100 RBIs five times.  The press dubbed him and Shohei Ohtani "the O-N tandem of the Heisei Era".  Nakata was the original "Sho-time" and it's always kind of grated some of the English speaking Fighters fan community that MLB appropriated that moniker for Ohtani after Ohtani joined the Angels.

During these ten seasons (2011-20), Nakata would lead the Pacific League in RBIs three times, win five Best Awards and four Golden Gloves and be selected for the All Star team eight times (2011-18 - remember there was no All Star game in 2020).  He regularly appeared on the Samurai Japan team in both major tournaments (2013 & 2017 WBCs, 2015 Premier 12) and smaller exhibitions (games against Taiwan in 2013 & 2016, MLB All Stars in 2014, European All Stars in 2015).  

It all came apart in 2021.  He slumped badly to start the season and suffered a couple injuries - at least one of which was essentially self inflicted when he broke his bat in frustration after striking out and injuring his face above his right eye.  He had just returned from being sidelined for almost two months due to back pain when he physically assaulted one of his teammates before an exhibition game during the stretch when NPB suspended their regular season because of the Olympics.

I don't believe it's ever been made public who he assaulted or what he did but the Fighters soon suspended Nakata indefinitely.  Two weeks after the incident, he was sent to the Giants in a "free trade" which basically means the Fighters simply gave him to Yomiuri.  

He continued to slump with the Giants for the remainder of the 2021 season but he bounced back in 2022, hitting over 20 home runs again for the first time in two years.  He was selected to the All Star game but had to skip it as he had contracted COVID-19.  He would win another Golden Glove that year as well.  He made the All Star team again in 2023 but his numbers declined somewhat and, at the end of the season, new manager Shinnosuke Abe made it clear that his plans for the Giants the following year did not include the soon-to-be 35 year old in a starting role.  Nakata considered attempting international free agency but instead activated an opt-out clause in his contract and became a domestic free agent.

He joined the Dragons and spent the last two seasons of his career with them.  His time in Nagoya did not go particularly well as injuries cut into his playing time and his offensive decline continued (and probably accelerated).  He announced his retirement in mid-August of last year and has taken a job as a baseball commentator with Tokai Radio's "Guts Nighter" show.

His first baseball cards were all BBM issues in 2008 with the first being #36 in the Rookie Edition set.  He had two cards in 1st Version (a "regular" card and a "Rookie Of The Year Candidate" subset card) two cards in 2nd Version (a "regular" card and a "Pick Up Rookies" subset card), five cards in the Fighters team set (a "regular" card and a couple subset cards) and a card in the Rookie Edition Premium set.  His first Calbee card wasn't until 2009's Series Three (#222).  Here's a handful of his cards:

2008 BBM Rookie Edition #36

2008 BBM 1st Version #244

2009 BBM Nippon Series #S49

2012 BBM Fighters #FM-1

2013 BBM Young Fighters #YF16

2014 Calbee Series Three #206

2016 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-27

2017 Fighters Legend Series #6

2019 Nippon-Ham Home Run Sausage #R-11

2020 BBM Fusion #TH05

2023 Calbee Series Two #FW-10

2024 BBM 2nd Version #475

That last card features one of the few times he got on base for the Dragons in 2024.

The hype around him during his first training camp in 2008 was such that, when he homered in his first at-bat in the Fighters' first exhibition game on March 1st, Sports Card Magazine issued a card a commemorative card in issue #68 that hit the newsstands later that same month:

2008 SCM #96