Mamoru Kishida

Orx Buffaloes pitcher Mamoru Kishida retired at the end of the 2019 season.  Like Eishin Soyogi, he spent several years in the corporate leagues after graduating from college - in his case he attended Tohoku Fukushi University and then played for NTT Nishi Nihon.  Also like Soyogi, he was taken in the third round of the University/Corporate League portion of the 2005 draft although he was taken by Orix rather than Hiroshima. 

He spent most of 2006 with the farm team but moved to the ichi-gun team in 2007.  He worked mostly in long relief that year and posted a decent 2.93 ERA in 126 innings.  The Buffaloes moved him to the starting rotation in 2009 and he went 4-1 with a 2.94 ERA in 10 starts in an injury plagued year as he missed time due to back and leg issues.  He made 19 starts in 2009 and went 10-4 with a 3.10 ERA although he again missed time due to injuries, this time to his shoulder.

He started 2010 in the rotation but after six starts (in which he went 1-4 with a 4.45 ERA) the Buffaloes shifted him to the bullpen and eventually to the closer's role where he earned 12 saves.  He made the All Star team that year.  He notched 33 saves in 2011, second in the Pacific League, and earned a spot on the All Star team again.  He started 2012 as the closer but had some ups and downs during the season and ended up missing most of September due to a leg injury.  But he still had 18 saves with a 2.42 ERA in 52 games. 

He lost the closer's role to Yoshihisa Hirano in 2013 but spent most of that season and the next two after that in the bullpen of the top team, apart from a short and ill fated attempt to make a starter out of him again in 2014.  His playing time at the ichi-gun level started to drastically drop off after 2015 though with him only appearing in 16 games in 2016, 4 games in 2017 and 17 games in 2018.  He spent all of 2019 with the farm team except for his appearance in his retirement game on September 29th, striking out the one batter he faced (Tomoki Takata of the Hawks).  He'll be the Buffaloes farm team pitching coach this year.

His first card was #28 in the 2006 BBM Rookie Edition set and he also had cards in their 1st Version (#139), 2nd Version (#708) and Buffaloes (#Bs07) sets that year.  His first Calbee card wasn't until 2008 (#092).  Here's some of his cards:

2006 BBM Rookie Edition ##28

2006 BBM 1st Version #139

2006 BBM Buffaloes #Bs07

2009 BBM 1st Version #041

2011 BBM All Stars #A15

2012 BBM Pedigree #08

2003 Calbee #070

2015 Orix Players Card #18

2019 BBM Buffaloes #B08

RIP Katsuya Nomura

Another of the all time greats from NPB has passed - Katsuya Nomura, long time player and manager (not to mention player-manager) has passed away at age 84.  Jim Allen has already written a wonderful appreciation of Nomura so I'm just going to show a bunch of baseball cards.

Here's a bunch of vintage menko and game cards from the late 50's and early 60's:

1958 Marusho JCM 38a

1958 Yamakatsu JCM 33e (Nomura in center with Tadashi Sugiuchi on the left)

1959 Doyusha Game Set 

1959 Maruta JCM 40

1962 JGA 149

1964 Marusho JCM 11

1964 Marukami JCM 14g

Here's several cards for him from the 1970's, mostly from Calbee.  The first two show the Hawks winning the 1973 Pacific League playoffs, the first pennant that Nomura won as manager (and the last pennant that Nankai ever won).  The third card shows him batting in the 1973 Nippon Series against the Giants.

1973/74 Calbee #355

1973/74 Calbee #356

1973/74 Calbee #336

~1975 Uncataloged Menko

1975/76 Calbee #697

1975/76 Calbee #952

1975/76 Calbee #1113

I think this card shows him getting recognition for being selected to his 20th All Star team before the first All Star game in 1976 on July 17th at Kawasaki Stadium:

1975/75 Calbee #931

He left Nankai after 1977 and joined the Lotte Orions.  As far as I know this is the only card ever issued that shows him with Lotte:

1978 Yamakatsu JY10

He finished his career by spending two seasons with the Seibu Lions:

1979 TCMA #13

Here are cards from his three managerial stints between 1990 and 2009:

1997 BBM Nippon Series #S1

2001 Upper Deck Victory #036

2007 BBM 1st Version #181

Here's a selection of recent OB cards for him.  He went through a stretch in the late 00's to early 10's when he didn't appear much in OB sets but that changed in recent years.

2006 BBM Nostalgic Baseball #051

2007 BBM HR Chronicle #02

2013 BBM All Star Game Memories 80's #85

2013 BBM Hawks 75th Anniversary #03

2014 BBM 80th Anniversary Batters Edition #91

2018 BBM Hawks 80th Anniversary #05

Finally here's the front and back of a card from the 2018 BBM Infinity set (#092) showing him with his son Katsunori:

Eishin Soyogi

Former Hiroshima Toyo Carp infielder Eishin Soyogi announced his retirement back in October.  You'll be forgiven if you thought he had already retired as he last played for the Carp back in 2017.

Soyogi attended Komazawa University but spent three years playing in the corporate leagues for Nissan Motor after graduating.  He was drafted by his home prefecture team the Carp in the third round of the University/Corporate League portion of the 2005 draft (Soyogi is from Miyoshi-city in Hiroshima-prefecture). 

He made the Carp's Opening Day lineup in 2006, the first time a Carp draftee had done so since Koji Yamamoto in 1969.  He had a good rookie season as the Carp's regular shortstop, hitting .289 with 8 home runs and winning the Central League Rookie Of The Year award.  The following year he changed his batting strategy in an attempt to add more power - he ended up with 18 home runs but his average dropped to .260.  His numbers fell off in 2008 and he got demoted to ni-gun, losing his starting role to rookie Tetuya Kokubo.  He had further issues getting playing time in 2009 when the Carp picked up Takuro Ishii as well.  It didn't help that he had somehow gotten into manager Marty Brown's doghouse as well.

Kenjiro Nomura took over the managerial reigns in 2010 and Soyogi earned the starting shortstop job in camp that year with Kokubo moving to third base (and the 39 year old Ishii moving into a utility role).  He had the best season of his career that year, hitting .306 with 13 home runs and leading the Central League in stolen bases with 43.  He also won a Golden Glove that season. 

He was limited to only 52 games in 2011 after he broke his left knee after fouling a pitch off onto it.  He was back as starting shortstop in 2012 and 2013, hitting only .244 in 2012 but rebounding to .304 in 2013.  He split 2014 between third base and shortstop to make room for the development of rookie Kosuke Tanaka.  He had a poor season in 2015, hitting only .237 and got demoted to the farm team late in the season.  He spent almost all of 2016 with the farm team, getting into only seven games with the top team and then spent the entirety of 2017 at the ni-gun level.  The Carp released him after the 2017 season.

He was interested in continuing to play but as a 37 year old he didn't attract any attention from any other NPB teams or any independent teams in either Japan or the US.  He eventually joined the Agekke corporate league team as a player-coach in June of 2018 (he can be seen in this promotional video for the team which also includes footage of their women's team).  He was back with Agekke this past season although he also made some appearances as a color commentator on Carp broadcasts.  He'll be a coach with the JFE West corporate league team this year.

Soyogi's rookie cards are all from 2006.  His first BBM card was #93 in the Rookie Edition set and he also appeared in 1st Version (#431), 2nd Version (#698), Touch The Game (#141) and the Carp team set (#C051).  His first Calbee card was #192 in the 2006 set.  Here's a selection of his cards:

2006 BBM Rookie Edition #93

2006 BBM 1st Version #431

2007 BBM 1st Version #448

2009 BBM 2nd Version #701

2011 BBM 1st Version #391

2012 Front Runner Trading Cards Carp Starting Lineup #02

2013 BBM 2nd Version #508

2015 Calbee #141

2017 BBM Carp #C48

RIP Angel Echevarria

Sad news broke yesterday - former Nippon-Ham Fighters outfielder Angel Echevarria passed away Friday at age 48.

Echevarria had played in the majors for the Rockies, Brewers and Cubs before joining the Fighters (who still played in Tokyo at the time) for the 2003 season.  He hit .275 with 31 home runs and 84 RBIs in 110 games that season.  He ran into issues getting playing time the following season (the Fighter's first in Hokkaido) as Fernando Seguignol had joined the team and Sherman Obando had returned after a season playing in Mexico.  His numbers dropped to 16 home runs and 54 RBIs with a .258 batting average in 94 games.  He rejoined the Cubs organization in 2005, spending the first month of the season with their Triple-A Iowa club before playing the rest of the season in the Mexican League.  He finished his career playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish in the independent Atlantic League in 2006.

Echevarria had cards in the 2003 and 2004 1st and 2nd Version sets from BBM as well as their Fighters team sets for those years.  He was also in their Touch The Game set for both years and their 2004 Pacific League Playoffs set.  He also had Calbee and Konami cards both years he was in Japan.  The only OB card for him that I know of is from the 2013 BBM Fighters 10th Season In Hokkaido set.

2003 BBM 2nd Version #771

2003 BBM Fighters #061

2004 BBM 1st Version #149

2004 BBM Pacific League Playoff #P48

2013 BBM Fighters 10th Season In Hokkaido #64