Very sad news out of Hiroshima - Giants coach Takuya Kimura has passed away from a brain hemorrhage a few days after collapsing on the field at Mazda Stadium. He was 37 years old (he would have turned 38 next week).

Kimura originally came up with the Fighters in 1992, moved to the Carp for the 1995 season, then was traded to the Giants in 2006. He had retired following last year after being on his first ever Nippon Series Champions and was in his first season as infield and running coach for Yomiuri.

Deanna had some comments about him here.

Here's a smattering of his cards. It looks like he had one card with the Fighters in 1994 (#391), but the earliest card I have of him is with the Carp in 1999 (#363):


He was a member of the Japanese National Team both for the 2003 Asian Championship (although he didn't actually play) and the 2004 Olympics. Here's his card from the 2003 BBM Japanese National Team set (#24):


He was traded to the Giants in the middle of the 2006 season, leading him to have a card with the Carp in the BBM 1st Version set (#420) and a card with the Giants in the 2nd Version set (#521). This is one of the few times (I think) that 2nd Version update subset has actually shown a player who appeared in the 1st Version:



His final card as a player was in last season's BBM Nippon Series set (#S16):