RIP Yoshinori Hirose

Longtime Nankai Hawks star and Hall Of Famer Yoshinori Hirose passed away earlier this month from heart failure at age 89.

Hirose originally signed with the Hawks as a pitcher in 1955 but an elbow injury in his first few months with the team caused him to switch to being a position player.  He made his debut with the top team in 1956 and by the middle of 1957 was Nankai's starting shortstop.  He shifted to the outfield in 1961 to make way for Kenji Koike at short and ran off a streak of five straight years of leading the Pacific League in stolen bases.  He also won the batting crown in 1964, becoming the first player to ever win the batting and stolen base titles in the same season.  He also set the NPB record for most at bats in a season with 626 in 1963.

Speed obviously was a major part of Hirose's game and he was the first player in NPB history to reach 500 stolen bases.  He was obviously the career leader in steals for a number of years but was passed by Yutaka Fukumoto late in the 1977 season, Hirose's final year.  He finished his career with 596 stolen bases, which is still second all time (albeit distantly to Fukumoto's 1065).  He also hold the records for consecutive steals without getting thrown out with 31 in 1964 and for stolen base success rate with 95.7% in 1968 (in which he stole 44 bases while only getting thrown out twice).

He won three Best 9 awards and the first Diamond Glove outfielder award (as the Golden Gloves were called when they were introduced in 1972).  He was selected to the All Star team 11 times (1958-66, 1968-69) although he declined to play due to injury in 1964 and 1968.  He won two All Star game MVP awards (1961 Game One and 1966 Game One).  He got his 2000th hit in 1972, becoming only the sixth player to reach that milestone.  He'd become a member of the Meikyukai when that club was established in 1978.  He was elected to the Hall Of Fame in 1999.

He became the manager of the Hawks after retiring, taking over for Katsuya Nomura, who'd been dismissed for "mishandling personal and professional matters" as Hirose's Japanese Wikipedia page states.  I've never gotten a clear understanding of what happened but Nomura's wife (who he had married after having an affair with her during his previous marriage) was apparently interfering with the running of the team.  Hirose's team was weakened by the departures of both Yutaka Enatsu and Junichi Kashiwabara who had sided with Nomura.  The Hawks had finished second in 1977 (well, second overall - the PL was using a split season at the time and Nankai had finished second in the first half and third in the second half) but dropped to sixth in 1978 (overall and in both halves).  They climbed to fifth in 1979 but after dropping back to last in 1980, Hirose was replaced by Don Blasingame (who'd been the head coach under Nomura for a number of years).  

He was a baseball commentator during most the 1980's before returning to the Hawks (now in Fukuoka and owned by Daiei) as a defensive and base running coach in 1991.  Under his tutelage, three Hawks players (Hisashi Ohno, Makoto Sasaki and Hiroshi Yugamiya) had more than 30 steals in 1991, with Ohno leading the league with 42.  The following year, Sasaki led the league with 40 steals and became only the second player (after Hirose) to win a batting and stolen base title in the same year.  He went back to being a baseball commentator following the 1992 season, a job he'd continue until he retired in 2015.

Now that I'm looking at Hirose's vintage cards, I'm a bit surprised about something.  While he appears in a lot of menko, bromide, gum and game sets from the late 50's and early 60's (as well as the 1967 Kabaya-Leaf set), he almost completely absent from Calbee's sets.  He only appears on three cards and only one of those (#800a from the 1974/75 set) features only him.  He shares a card with Katsuhiro Nakamura (1974/75 #95) and is included on the Hawks team card from the 1975/76/77 set (#410).  He's appeared pretty regularly in BBM's OB sets over the last 25 years, especially any of the various Hawks OB team sets.  He's also appeared in at least two Epoch OB sets.  Here's a bunch of his cards:

1959 Marusho JCM 39

1960 Marusho JCM 13a

1962 JGA 146 "Tassel Playing Cards"

1967 Kabaya-Leaf #318

1974/75 Calbee #800a

1977 NST #324

2000 BBM 20th Century Best 9 #457

2002 BBM All Time Heroes #115

2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #052

2014 BBM Young Hawks - Futures And Legends #35

2018 BBM Hawks 80th Anniversary #06

2018 BBM Hawks #HH13

2022 BBM Hawks History 1938-2022 #11

A couple comments:

• I think both Marusho menko cards use the same image but the 1960 card is cropped tighter and the colors are different
• I don't actually own the Kabaya-Leaf card - I swiped the image from TCDB.
• That 2018 BBM Hawks card is from the "Hawks History" cross set subset and is the only card I've seen depicting him as Hawks manager (there may be another one from something Engel refers to as "JA 9" but I've never seen any cards from that set).

One final thing - I was kind of taken aback at the photo on the back of Hirose's 2002 BBM All Time Heroes card:

I'm kind of curious about why he's got a motorcycle.  I suspect this is for one of his All Star game MVP awards but I don't know that for sure.

Zippy Zapped Once More

On Tuesday of this week, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an envelope in the mail from Kenny - aka Zippy Zappy - in Japan.  It'd been a month or so since the last time I'd gotten anything from him - not that I'm complaining at all.  I'm happy to take any cards that Kenny wants to send my way.  He has an uncanny knack for finding things that I don't already have.

This week's envelope only contained two cards - both of Ryosuke Nomura:

2015 BBM 1st Version #262

2016 BBM Dragons Dash

Nomura had joined the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Yokohama team in the corporate leagues after graduating from high school,  He pitched poor in 2013, putting up an ERA of 7.71 but pitched much better the following year, either posting an ERA of 2.11 or lowering his career ERA to 2.11 (not sure from his Japanese Wikipedia page).  Dragons GM Hiromitsu Ochiai liked the looks of him and convinced manager Motonobu Tanishige and Muneo Nakata, head of the Dragons' scouting department, that they should draft him in the 2014 NPB draft.  Which they did, as their number one pick, while the other teams were drafting the likes of Yasuaki Yamazaki, Kazuma Okamoto, Kohei Arihara, Shogo Nakamura and Sachiya Yamasaki.

Following the draft, Nomura pitched for the Samurai Japan team in the U21 Baseball World Cup.  He was the team's closer and made three scoreless appearances in round robin play.  In the final against Taiwan, however, he gave up five hits and two runs in one inning.  In fairness, it didn't matter much as Japan's offense couldn't muster more than four hits in the game and fell 9-0.

Nomura re-injured his shin - an injury he'd suffered in high school - while doing "voluntary" training with the Dragons that fall.  His attempts to pitch while protecting his shin caused him to hurt his shoulder which pretty much caused his career to be short.  He got into 14 games on the farm team in 2015 and pitched ok, going 1-2 with a 3.89 ERA but his time on the ichi-gun squad did not go well.  He debuted in the ninth inning against the Swallows on June 25th and gave up three runs on four hits and a walk.  He had an ERA of 10.13 in only three appearances with the top team that year which would end up being the only three appearances he'd ever make with them.  He had a winning record (3-2) in 12 games on the ni-gun team in 2016 but his ERA was 6.16 and he got released after going 0-1 with a 9.75 ERA in 2017.  He attended the twelve team tryout that fall but drew no interest.  He retired and became a batting practice pitcher for Chunichi.  

The Dragons finished last in 2016 - for the first time since 1997 - with Tanishige stepping down during the season and Ochiai being let go as GM after the season.  I don't know this for sure but I wonder if that sealed Nomura's fate - maybe he'd have been given a longer leash if Ochiai and Tanishige were still running things.  On the other hand, he didn't pitch well so maybe nothing would have saved him.

One last note - the Dragons thought highly enough of him to assign him uniform number 20.  As the back of his 1st Version card points out, this was the Dragons' "ace number" and had previously been worn by Shigeru Sugishita, Hiroshi Gondoh, Seinichi Hoshino, Tatsuo Komatsu, Sun Dong-yol, Kenjiro Kawasaki and Kenichi Nakata.  After Nomura's release, the number went unused for five seasons until the arrival of Hideaki Wakui in 2023.  I guess Chunichi wanted to have some confidence that the next pitcher to wear the number was more likely to deserve it.

As always, thanks for the cards, Kenny!

Ohtanis In The Outfield

 

2013 Calbee Series Three #AS-22

I saw a question asked both in comment in an old post here on the blog and over at NPB Reddit about whether the above card of Shohei Ohtani is the only Japanese card of him listing him as an outfielder.  I actually knew from a discussion I'd had on BlueSky recently that it wasn't, but I got curious about how many cards did list his position as an outfielder.  So I took a look.

Before I get to what I found, I want to take a minute and get kind of nit-picky about the Calbee card though.  Technically, it doesn't list Ohtani's position.  Rather it's listing the slot he had on the All Star team - "Pacific League Outfielder".  Now you're probably thinking to yourself "what's the difference?" so let me explain a little bit more.  Players are listed on NPB rosters in four separate categories - "Pitcher", "Catcher", "Infielder" and "Outfielder" - and those four categories are typically what you'll see on their baseball cards.  For example, Munetaka Murakami's cards list him as "Infielder" and not "Third Baseman".  The other cards in the All Star subset from that Calbee set list the actual position for the infielders rather than the generic "Infielder".  For example, Nobuhiro Matsuda is listed as the "Pacific League Third Baseman" and Kazuo Matsui is listed as the "Pacific League Shortstop".  That's because what the card is actually listing is their position for the All Star game and not their general position.  It's splitting hairs to be sure but I wanted to point out that the circumstances for this card are different than those of the other cards in this post.

I research this, I did searches for Ohtani's cards over at Jambalaya and examined the results.  I got my initial list from this and then checked some additional cards that I had that Jambalaya didn't.

What I discovered is that the vast majority of Ohtani's NPB cards list him as "Pitcher" which is what I expected.  As I said above, typically cards of NPB players reflect their category on the team's roster and Ohtani was always listed as a pitcher on the Fighters' rosters.  But I found ten cards that listed him as "Outfielder" - even though he didn't actually play in the field after 2014.  Every card that lists him as an outfielder shows him batting but not every card that shows him batting lists him as an outfielder.  With one exception, it's only BBM cards that listed him as an outfielder.  What's kind of odd is that BBM only did it for their flagship sets and a couple of their Genesis sets.  For the Fighters' team sets, he's always listed as a pitcher - even on the card in the 2013 set that shows him batting.

Without further ado, here are the cards listing him as an outfielder:

2013 Bandai Owners League 02 #074

2014 BBM 1st Version #137 (Batting Version)

2014 BBM Genesis #054

2015 BBM 2nd Version #343

2016 BBM 2nd Version #340

2016 BBM 2nd Version "One and Only" #OO02

2017 BBM 1st Version #002 (Secret Version)

2017 BBM 2nd Version #388

2017 BBM 2nd Version #CS39

2017 BBM Genesis #008

A couple comments:

• It may not be obvious that the Bandai card lists his position as "Outfielder" but if you look at the text in the lower right corner, you'll see "外野手" which is Japanese for "Outfielder"
• This is not a definitive list.  I only have a couple of his Bandai cards and none of his Konami cards as well as only a couple team issued cards.  But I'm pretty confident that I've checked all his BBM, Calbee and Epoch cards
• The 2014 Genesis set has two Ohtani cards - one pitching (#46) and one hitting (#54).  The 2017 set only has the one card
• The 2017 "Cross Squall" subset is the only one of the "Cross" subsets to have two Ohtani cards - one pitching and one hitting.  All the other ones between 2013 and 2016 have only one card that lists him as a pitcher, even if the photo shows him batting

Card Of The Week November 16

Samurai Japan played two friendly matches with Team Korea over the weekend in Tokyo and things went pretty well for them.  They won the game yesterday 11-4, making it ten straight wins against Korea before playing to a 7-7 tie today.

The MVP of each game - Mishio Nishkawa of the Marines and Tai Sasaki of the Carp - were both 2024 draft picks so I don't have any NPB cards of either of them.  But both of them were on the 2023 Collegiate Samurai Japan team that was commemorated in the 2024 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes set so I have jersey cards of both of them:

2024 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes #JPN-MN

2024 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes #JPN-TS

The only Samurai Japan player to homer in the series was Yukinori Kishida of the Giants.  His three run shot in the fifth inning of yesterday's game broke a 3-3 tie and put Japan up for good.

2024 BBM 2nd Version #436

Japanese Players In Baseball United

Baseball United, a winter league with four teams representing Middle Eastern and Asian countries - India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE - kicked off their inaugural season today in Dubai with the Karachi Monarchs beating the Mumbai Cobras 6-4 on the strength of a five run, ninth inning rally.  The league will play an 18 game season with each team playing nine games through early December.

I was a bit surprised when I looked over the 2025 team rosters that there didn't appear to be any Western players who had played in Japan.  The initial rosters back in 2023 had included former gaijin like Willin Rosario, Brandon Laird, Courtney Hawkins and Dovydas Neverauskas but there aren't any on the current rosters.  There are, however, a number of Japanese players on the roster for the Mid East Falcons.  Actually, eleven of the twenty players on the roster are from Japan and I believe that two more will be named on November 19 - there was a TBS* reality show called "Tryout: Plan D" where players competed for the last two roster spots on the team.

* That's Tokyo Broadcast System, not Turner Broadcasting System

The eleven players on the roster can be split up into three groups.  The first, and largest, are the eight former NPB players.  Let's run through them quickly:

2007 BBM 1st Version #101

Shuhei Fukuda was the Hawks first round pick in the 2006 high school draft and played for the team until he left as a free agent after the 2019 season.  He spent the next four years with the Chiba Lotte Marines and played for the independent Kufu Hayate Ventures Shizuoka in 2024.

I didn't see him play for Hayate at the game I went to last year but his name and image was on a banner outside the ballpark:

2017 BBM Eagles #E21

Kodai Hamaya was the Eagles 2013 third round draft pick.  He spent five years in Sendai before being traded to the Baystars before the 2019 season.  He's played all over the place since DeNA released him after the 2020 season including indy ball in Japan (Ibaraki Astro Planets) along with teams in Mexico (Veracruz) and Italy (Nettuno).

2023 BBM Baystars DB18

Shingo Hirata spent his entire ten year NPB career with the Baystars after they drafted him in the second round of the 2013 draft.

2019 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-05

The Dragons took Shotaro Kasahara in the fourth round of the 2016 draft.  He was a member of the Samurai Japan team that played against the MLB All Stars in the 2018 off season.  The Baystars plucked him off Chunichi's roster in the first "Active Player Draft" in December of 2022 but they released him after the 2023 season.  He split 2024 between the TSG Hawks of the CPBL and the independent Oisix Niigata Albirex Baseball Club.

2017 Epoch Hawks #21

I probably don't need to say much about 44 year old Munenori Kawasaki.  He was the fourth pick of the 1999 draft by the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks which I believe makes him both the last active player drafted in the 20th century and the last active Daiei Hawk.  After 12 seasons with the Hawks (which included eight All Star appearances, two Best 9 awards, two Golden Glove awards, a stolen base title and two Nippon Series championships), he departed Japan for the Seattle Mariners.  He spend four seasons in MLB between the Mariners, Blue Jays and Cubs before returning to the Hawks in 2017.  After one season with Softbank, he played for the Wei Chuan Dragons of the CPBL and has spent the past six seasons with the Tochigi Golden Braves of the indy Baseball Challenge League.  He played on both the 2006 and 2009 WBC teams for Japan as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympic team (which didn't go as well as the WBC).  He was also a member of the Japan Breeze team that participated in last winter's Caribbean Series.

2006 BBM All Stars #A28

Hiroyuki Nakajima was the fifth round pick of the Seibu Lions in the 2000 draft.  Like Kawasaki, he spent 12 years with the team that drafted him, racking up similar accolades - eight All Star appearances, four Best 9 awards, three Golden Gloves and two Nippon Series championships - before heading for North America.  He spent two seasons in the Oakland Athletics' farm system and never reached the majors before returning to Japan.  He'd spend the remainder of his career with the Orix Buffaloes (2015-18), Yomiuri Giants (2019-23) and Chunichi Dragons (2024).  He was a teammate of Kawasaki's on the 2008 Olympic and 2009 WBC teams.

2019 Baystars Spring Camp #41

Shuto Sakurai was taken by the Baystars in the fifth round of the 2017 draft.  After six years with DeNA, he was selected by the Eagles in the 2023 Active Player draft but Rakuten released him after the 2024 season.  He also played for the Japan Breeze last winter before joining the TSG Hawks of the CPBL for the 2025 season.

2017 BBM 1st Version #357

The second round pick of the Carp in the 2014 draft, Kazuki Yabuta would spend nine seasons in Hiroshima and made one All Star team.  He has spent the last two seasons with the independent Oisix Niigata Albirex Baseball Club.

The second group of players are the current NPB players.  The Yokohama DeNA Baystars have dispatched two "prospects" to play with the Falcons - Manato Tanai and Haru Yoshioka:

2025 BBM Baystars #DB56

2025 Epoch Baystars Premier Edition #35

The final group consists of a single player - Shotaro Usui.  As far as I can tell, he has never played professional baseball in Japan at any level but I've not been able to find out a lot of details about him.  I've seen him referenced with teams in both Austria and Germany as well as a club team in Australia but that's about it.

Japanese Players Playing In Winter Leagues Abroad

The 2025-26 Caribbean Winter Leagues are already underway and the Australian Baseball League will be starting their season later this week.  This means that it's time for my annual post about which Japanese players have been dispatched by their NPB teams to get some overseas experience over the winter.  Well, I say "over the winter" but typically the players only play in these leagues for a month or so, usually returning to Japan in time for Christmas or New Years.  As usual, I'm relying on the WinterLeagueJP website for much of this information.

The Australian Baseball League is going to look a little different this year.  They lost two teams over the off-season, with the Melbourne Aces departing the league for the KBO Fall League and the Canberra Cavalry just flat out disbanding.  That leaves the league with just four teams - the Brisbane Bandits, Sydney Blue Sox, Adelaide Giants and Perth Heat - which is half of what the league had six years ago.

Adelaide will welcome four Giants of the Yomiuri variety - Yu Aramaki, Yusei Ishuzaka, Yamato Shiroki and Tomoki Tamura:

2025 BBM 1st Version #025

2025 Epoch NPB #016

2023 BBM 2nd Version #541

2023 Bowman NPB #BP-10

Brisbane is getting Kyosuke Mashiko and Hayate Nakagawa from the Yokohama DeNA Baystars:

2021 BBM Baystars #DB37

2024 BBM Baystars #DB74

Moving over to the Western hemisphere, four NPB teams are sending players to three teams in the Puerto Rican Winter League.  Most of these players are on the young side with only a few years of professional experience with one exception - the Swallows are sending 30 year old and 12 year veteran Kazuto Taguchi to the Leones de Ponce:

2023 BBM 1st Version #170

The Gigantes de Carolina are getting four players from two teams - Ryuta Hirose and Kazuo Ohno of the Hawks and Ren Mukunoki and Kaisei Tohmatsu of the Buffaloes:

2024 BBM Hawks #H49

2023 Epoch Hawks Premier Edition #15

2022 Epoch NPB #246

2024 Topps Stadium Club NPB #45

Lastly, the Lions are sending three players to the Senadores de San Juan - Minato Aoyama, Shinya Hasegawa and Taishi Mameda:

2024 Epoch NPB #288

2022 BBM Fusion #620

2024 BBM Lions Collection #LC11

There is another winter league that is starting up this winter that has some Japanese players - Baseball United.  Most of those players are not under contract to an NPB team anymore, however.  I will discuss them in a post that I hope to get to later this week.

NOTE - any 2025 cards in this post are images swiped from Jambalaya.