Card Of The Week October 11

There are some many things that happened over the past week that would warrant a "Card of the Week" post that I couldn't pick just one.  So in more or less chronological order...

On Thursday, the Dragons announced that their new manager would be Hall of Famer Kimiyasu Kudoh who managed the Hawks to five Nippon Series championships during his seven years running the team from 2015 and 2021.  Kudoh had a 29 year playing career from 1981 to 2010 and was always one of my favorite players, especially as he was the last NPB player who was older than me (I think Jamie Moyer was the last such MLB player).  Which means there'll be at least one NPB manager in 2027 who is older than me.  I believe his 1982 Takara Lions card was his first card:

1982 Takara Lions #47

The 2025 NPB regular season wheezed to a finish on Thursday with the Swallows knocking off the Tigers 4-0.  The last few weeks of the season are make ups of games that were rained out earlier in the season so it's a somewhat random collection of matchups every day until they're all played.  With that final game in the books, the statistical leaders for the season were finalized.  The big news is that Teruaki Sato of the Tigers won the Triple Crown in the Central League with a .306 average, 39 home runs and 109 RBIs.  

2024 Topps Stadium Club NPB #13

Ryoma Nishikawa of the Buffaloes and Misho Nishikawa of the Marines tied for the most hits in the Pacific League.  It was the first time since 1944 that two players with the same surname tied to lead a league in any category.

2024 Calbee Series Two #092

2025 BBM 35th Anniversary/Shukan Baseball 4000th #235

And finally, the first round of the Climax Series started this weekend.  Alexander Canario of the Lions had a walk off home run Saturday to beat the Fighters but, unfortunately, since he didn't start playing in Japan until this year, I don't have any cards of him.  I do have cards of Ryuki Watarai of the Baystars, however.  Watari hit the game winning home run in Game One against the Giants and hit another home run in Game Two to help DeNA sweep Yomiuri in two games.

2024 Epoch One #079