Card Of The Week July 5

A day late this week due to our house losing power for 25 hours due to a major storm on Saturday night...

I had seen that the Mets had fired manager Carlos Mendoza a few weeks ago but I hadn't realized that they had replaced him with Andy Green on an interim basis.  Green had played in Japan for the Fighters in 2007 and it got me wondering how many of the current MLB managers ever played in NPB.  The answer is two - Green and Diamondbacks manager Tory Lovullo who spent 2000 with the Yakult Swallows.

In contrast, three of the current NPB managers played in MLB - Tigers manager Kyuji Fujikawa (Cubs & Rangers), Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo (Mets & Giants) and Eagles manager Masato Yoshii (Mets, Rockies, & Expos).  Three other NPB managers played in the US/Canada but not MLB - Fumiya Nishiguchi of the Lions played for the Sioux City Explorers of the independent Northern League in 1995 and both Dragons manager Kazuki Inoue and Hawks manager Hiroki Kokubo played in the Hawaiian Winter League in the 1990's*.

* I know Kokubo was with the Kauai Emeralds in 1994 but I'm not sure when Inoue was with the West Oahu CaneFires.  The Emeralds became the CaneFires when they moved to Waipahu on the island of Oahu after 1994 but I don't know which of the three remaining seasons in the league's first incarnation Inoue was with them.  It's been very frustrating that this is one of the few leagues that Baseball-Reference doesn't have any records for.

Here are NPB cards of both Green and Kokubo:

2007 BBM Fighters #F054

2000 BBM Diamond Heroes #194