Long time Japanese baseball personality Marty Kuehnert has passed away at age 78.  Kuehnert had entered Japanese baseball in 1972 and 1973 as the business manager of the Lodi minor league team that was owned by Nagayoshi Nakamura, the owner of first the Lotte Orions and then the Taiheiyo Club Lions.  He later worked as a sportswriter in Japan, opened the first sports bar in Japan (in Kobe), and would found the International Sports Management and Consulting firm (ISMAC) in the 1980's.  It was with ISMAC that he was involved in the birth of BBM's baseball card business.  He was the president and part-owner of the Birmingham Barons for a few years in the 1990's, including the season that Michael Jordan spent with the team.  He was the first ever Westerner to serve as the GM of an NPB team when he was named to that role with the expansion Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2005 and was a senior advisor to the team for a number of years after that.  He was also a senior advisor for the Sendai 89ers basketball team in Japans B. League.  I'm sure I'm leaving out many things but my point is that he was involved with Japanese baseball in one way or another for over 50 years.

As the first GM of the Eagles, he had a baseball card in the Eagles inaugural team box set from BBM in 2005 (#E02):

Former Carp and Buffalo infielder and one time Carp manager Junro Anan passed away last week at age 86.  Anan joined the Carp after graduating from high school in 1956.  He was Junichi Anan then as he didn't change his name to Junro until 1964.  He spent most of his time with the Carp as a utility infielder as his weak hitting caused him to lose the few starting opportunities he had.  He moved to the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 1968 and was their starting third baseman for the next two seasons.  He hit less than .200 in 1970 though and retired at the end of that season.

He coached for the Buffaloes for a couple years after retirement but was invited back to Hiroshima by former teammate Katsuya Morinaga in 1974.  He coached with the farm team initially but was promoted to the ichi-gun team the following year when manager Joe Lutz abruptly left the team 15 games into the season and was replaced by Takeshi Koba.  Anan would remain a coach for the Carp under Koba for another ten years.  He became the Carp manager when Koba stepped down after the 1985 season and led them to the Central League pennant in his first season.  Hiroshima lost to the Lions in the 1986 Nippon Series and finished third in both of the following seasons.  Anan retired as manager after 1988 and was replaced by Koji Yamamoto.  He doesn't appear to have coached or done any broadcasting after his managerial career ended which seems somewhat surprising considering he would have only been 52 at that point.

Anan does not appear to have had many baseball cards.  He only had one card during his playing career - from the 1960 Sakai Gum set (JF  49).  He's appeared in several OB Carp sets over the past 15 years though - 2009 BBM Carp 60th, 2014 Epoch The First Victory 40th Anniversary, 2015 BBM Carp Legends, 2018 Epoch Carp Stars & Legends, 2020 BBM Carp History 1950-2020 and 2021 Epoch Carp Stars & Legends.  He's also in the 2011 Epoch All Japan Baseball Foundation Managers set.  Here's the cards that I have for him:

2009 BBM Carp 60th Anniversary #11

2011 Epoch All Japan Baseball Foundation Managers #20

2014 Epoch The First Victory 40th Anniversary #01

2015 BBM Carp Legends #02

2020 BBM Carp History 1950-2020 #09

Former Orions, Tigers and Carp pitcher Tomoo Wako passed away earlier this week from liver cancer.  He was 87 years old.

Wako was born and raised in Sendai and attended Tohoku High School.  He was teammates with two other, unrelated players with the same surname - Tadao and Terumoto.  Collectively they were known as the "Three Wako Of Tohoku".  After graduating, Tomoo signed with the Mainichi Orions and within a few years was one of the workhorses of the pitching staff - working in both a starting and relieving role as need be.  He went 13-8 in 1960 to help the now Daimai Orions win the Pacific League pennant and appeared in two games in the Nippon Series against the Taiyo Whales.  

He was dealt to the Hanshin Tigers prior to the 1964 season as part of the "Trade Of The Century" that sent Masaaki Koyama to the Orions for Kazuhiro Yamaguchi.  The Tigers won the Central League pennant that year and he appeared in two games in the Nippon Series against the Nankai Hawks.  He continued to work in both as both a starter and reliever over the next decade, putting up some decent if unremarkable seasons.  He made his only All Star team in 1969.  He was the Tigers' pitching coach from 1970 to 1972, despite still being an active player.

After the 1974 season he was dealt to the Hiroshima Toyo Carp for Sohachi Aniya.  Once again, his new team won the Central League pennant in his first season with them and once again, he made a pair of appearances in the Nippon Series.  He was the first player to ever appear in the Nippon Series with three different teams although all were in a losing effort.

He retired as a player after 1976 and started coaching.  He would spend nineteen of the next twenty years as a coach for five different teams - the Carp, the Orions (two separate stints), the Tigers (two separate stints), the Hawks and the Baystars.  After that he did some coaching for some club teams and a couple schools.

1967 Kabaya-Leaf #107

He did not have a lot of baseball cards during his career.  He had two menko cards depicting him with the Orions from 1959 and 1960, a card with the Tigers in the 1967 Kabaya-Leaf set (#107 shown above - I do not own this card - I swiped the image from TCDB) and a couple cards with the Carp from a couple playing card sets from 1975 and 1976.  He had a few more modern cards, appearing in the BBM Tigers Anniversary sets in 2005 (70th) and 2010 (75th) although not their 2015 (80th) one.  He was also in the 2013 BBM Greatest Games 10-22-1973 Tigers vs Giants and 2021 BBM Tigers History sets.  He appeared as a member of the Carp in the 2013 BBM The Trade Stories, the 2014 Epoch OB Club 20th Anniversary Volume One and 2015 BBM Carp Legends sets.  He has no modern cards depicting him as a member of the Orions - I suspect this is due to the OB team sets for the franchise being limited to only showing players from the Lotte era.

Here's a handful of his modern cards - I don't have any of his cards from when he was an active player:

2005 BBM Tigers 70th Anniversary #31

2010 BBM Tigers 75th Anniversary #19

2021 BBM Tigers History 1935-2021 #13

2013 BBM The Trade Stories #14

2015 BBM Carp Legends #09

Former Seibu Lions pitcher Chang Chih-chia passed away last week from a heart attack at age 43.  Chang had burst on the scene during the 2001 IBAF Baseball World Cup when he went 4-0 for the Taiwan National Team, including a five hit shutout of Team Japan in the Bronze Medal game.  He was drafted in the first round of the 2002 Taiwan Major League (TML) draft by Taipei Gida.  He only made five appearances in the TML before signing a contract with Seibu at the end of April, 2002.  He made his top team debut at the beginning of June and went 10-4 with a 2.71 ERA in 19 starts, helping the Lions to the Pacific League pennant.  Chang set a record by having at least one strikeout in 28 consecutive innings (which has since been surpassed by Dennis Sarfate).  He started Game Three of the Nippon Series against the Giants and gave up five runs in 3+ innings, taking the loss in the 10-2 game. 

His numbers weren't as good in 2003, going 7-7 with an ERA of 4.98.  He finished the year by beating South Korea and China in the Asian Baseball Championship in Sapporo, helping Taiwan qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympic games.  He rebounded a bit in 2004, going 9-8 with a 3.70 ERA and making the All Star team for the only time.  He pitched for Taiwan in the Athens Olympics, starting their games against Canada (a 7-0 loss) and Italy (a 5-4 loss).  He got the start in Game 4 of the Nippon Series against the Dragons and again took the loss but again giving up five runs, this time in 3 1/3 innings.  

That Nippon Series start was Chang's last appearance at the ichi-gun level.  A shoulder injury cost him most of the 2005 season and he spent both it and the following year on the farm team.  The Lions released him following 2006 and he apparently sat out the 2007 before joining the La New Bears of the CPBL (the TML having folded by now).  He spent two seasons with the Bears, going 3-4 with 2.07 ERA in 2008 and 10-9, 1.84 ERA in 2009.  He also pitched in both the Olympic Qualifying tournament in March of 2008 and the Beijing Olympics themselves that August.

Chang was released at the end of 2009 due to his involvement with a game-fixing scandal and was subsequently banned for life from the CPBL.  He was indicted by Taiwanese prosecutors in 2010 on gambling and fraud charges and was ultimately convicted.  I'm not sure what his initial prison sentence was - either four months or two years - or if he actually served any time.  His sentence was commuted in 2014 to a NT$120,000 fine.  

Chang had a number of Japanese baseball cards, mostly with BBM.  His rookie card was #693 in the 2002 BBM 2nd Version set but he also had Calbee Series Two (#145) and Konami Prime Nine (#PN02B1098) cards that year.*  That was his only Calbee card but he also had Konami cards in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 Konami Prime Nine sets.  He appeared in the 1st and 2nd Version sets in 2003 and 2004 and the 1st Version set in 2005 as well as the Lions team sets from 2003 to 2006.  He also appeared on some CPBL cards in at least 2008.

* To be honest, the Calbee Series Two card may predate the BBM 2nd Version one - not sure of the publication date of either set.  Or the Konami for that matter.

Here's some representative cards from his career in Japan:

2002 BBM 2nd Version #693

2002 BBM Nippon Series #S36

2003 BBM 1st Version #199

2003 BBM Lions #029

2004 BBM 2nd Version #486

2004 BBM All Stars #A50

2005 BBM 1st Version #19

Former Chunich Dragons outfielder, coach and manager Toshio Naka passed away last week from pneumonia at the age of 87.  Naka had joined the Dragons in 1955 after graduating from high school and became a regular in 1956.  He pretty much remained a staple of the Dragons' lineup until his final season of 1972.  Along the way, he led the Central League in stolen bases in 1960 and batting in 1967, was elected to five Best 9 awards and made six All Star teams.  He also led the CL in runs twice and triples a record five times.  

He was a player/coach his last two seasons before becoming a hitting coach, first for the farm team (1973-76) and then for the top team (1977).  He replaced Wally Yonamine as manager in 1978 and guided the team for three seasons.  He was a TV commentator for a couple years after being fired as manager before returning to Chunichi as a coach from 1984 to 1986.  He also spent four years as a coach for the Carp (1987-90) and then again became a TV commentator.

Naka changed his registered name a couple of times during his career.  Initially he went by his real name "Toshio Naka", but in 1964 he changed his registered name to "Mitsuo Naka".  The following year he changed it again to "Akio Naka" which he went by until he retired.  After he retired he went back to "Toshio Naka" although he changed the kanji from "中 利夫" to "中 登志雄" during his second stint with the Dragons and his years with the Carp.  

Naka had a number of baseball cards during his playing days, including various menko, bromide, game, candy and gum issues.  He also appears as the Dragons manager in the 1979 TCMA set.  He's been in a handful of BBM and Epoch's OB sets over the last 25 years or so, including the 2000 BBM 20th Century Best 9 set, the 2002 BBM All Time Heroes set, the 2021 BBM Dragons History set and BBM's three Dragons Anniversary sets - 2006's 70th, 2011's 75th and 2016's 80th.  Here's a handful of his cards, both from his playing days and more recent ones.  Note that both the 1967 Kabaya-Leaf and 2009 BBM Legends cards show his name as "中 暁生" or "Akio Naka" - not sure why the 2009 card identifies him that way when all the other "modern" cards have him as "Toshio Naka".

1957 Marukami JCM 28a

1959 Doyusha "Game Set"

1960 Tachibana Seika

1967 Kabaya-Leaf #71

1979 TCMA #79

2000 BBM 20th Century Best 9 #336

2006 BBM Dragons 70th Anniversary #27

2009 BBM Legend #039

2021 BBM Dragons History #08

Former Tigers, Lions and Carp pitcher Kenji Furusawa passed away earlier this week from cancer.  He was 75.  Furusawa dropped out of Niihama Higashi High School at age 16 to sign with Hanshin in 1964 and made his ichi-gun debut in July of that year.  At 16 years and 117 days, he was the youngest player to debut in NPB since the war ended.  It would be almost a year before he got his first victory, a complete game shutout of the Taiyo Whales in June of 1965.  He spent the rest of his teens and the 60's mostly on the farm although generally getting into a handful of games with the top team, usually working out of the bullpen.  He spent all of 1969 and 1970 on the ni-gun team but emerged in 1971 as one of the Tiger's top pitchers, going 12-9 with a 2.05 ERA.  He followed that with a down couple of seasons but was a mainstay in the Tigers' rotation for four years from 1974 to 1977.  He tied with Hiromu Matsuoka and Yoshiro Sotokoba for the Central League lead in shutouts with four in 1974 and tied for the lead again (this time with Senichi Hoshino, Shigeru Kobayashi and Takenori Emoto) in 1977 with three.

After a down year in 1978, Furusawa was dealt to the Seibu Lions as part of the blockbuster trade that sent future Hall Of Famer Koichi Tabuchi to the Lions in exchange for Akinobu Mayumi, Masashi Takenouchi, Masafumi Takeda, and Yoshiharu Wakana.  He posted ERAs over five for his first two years in Tokorozawa, getting moved out of the starting rotation into the bullpen or the farm team.  He bounced back somewhat in 1981, posting a 2.01 ERA in 32 games, mostly as a middle innings reliever.  He began 1982 on the farm team and in June he was traded along with Tetsuya Ohara to the Carp for Naoki Takahashi.  He spent the remainder of the season working out of the Carp bullpen, a role he'd continue for the next two seasons.  After spending the entirety of the 1985 season on the Carp's farm team he decided to retire as a player.  He was a two time All Star (1974 and 1977).  Despite having played for pennant winners in both his first and last seasons at the ichi-gun level (1964 & 1984), he never pitched in the Nippon Series.  He was a TV commentator for a few years after he retired before coaching for both the Carp, the Tigers and the Guangdong Leopards of the China Baseball League.

The bulk of Furusawa's baseball cards that came out when he was an active player are from Calbee and Takara.  He's appeared somewhat frequently in OB sets over the past 20 years, popping up in several OB team sets for the Tigers, Lions and Carp along with a couple more general sets.  Here's a handful of his cards:

1975/76/77 Calbee #522

1982 Takara Lions #51

1984 Takara Carp #16

2005 BBM Tigers 70th Anniversary #32

2013 BBM The Trade Stories #25

2020 BBM Time Travel 1985 #74

Giants and Lions farmhand Takashi "Taka" Miura has passed away at age 45 due to colorectal cancer.  Miura was a pitcher for the Toyo University team in the late 90's/early 00's and - along with his battery mate Shinnosuke Abe - helped the team win the league championship in his final season in the fall of 2000 when he went 7-2 and won the league MVP and Best Pitcher awards along with winning a Best 9 award.  He was the Giants' third pick in the 2000 draft out of Toyo University, two picks after Yomiuri took Abe.

He got into 49 games in middle relief with the top team in his rookie season of 2001, going 3-2 with a 3.41 ERA but he developed a case of the "yips" in 2002 and had difficulty throwing strikes.  He ended up being the first pitcher to be ejected under the new "dangerous pitch" rule introduced in NPB that season and only pitched in three games at the ichi-gun level.

Miura had been a good hitter in college, frequently appearing in the lineup as a DH on days he wasn't pitching so in 2003 Tatunori Hara decided to have him switch to being a position player.  His first hit as a non-pitcher was also his first home run, hit in September of 2003 against the Dragons.

The Giants used him as a utility player, playing in both the infield and the outfield, but he didn't spend a lot of time with the top team - only about 52 games over the five seasons from 2003 to 2007.  They released him following the 2007 season and he almost retired after initially drawing no interest from any teams after attending the 12 team tryout that fall.  But after Kazuki Fukuchi left the Lions for the Swallows, Seibu came calling and he spent the last two seasons of his career with them.  They released him after the 2009 season and, after again drawing no interest after the 12 team tryout, he retired as a player.

He visited his old high school, Urawa Gakuin, after he retired and was encouraged to became a teacher and coach for the baseball team by his old head coach.  He spent a couple more years back at Toyo University to get his teaching license and then was hired on at his old school.  He was able to take advantage of a change in coaching requirements.  Previously former professional players needed to have spend two years teaching before they could become high school coaches but the new rule allowed them to start coaching if they had had the necessary training.  He continued as a coach at his old school until he was diagnosed with cancer last year.  He was able to briefly return to work earlier this year but he got too sick to continue last month.

Miura's first baseball card was in the 2001 BBM set (#284).  There's actually two different versions of this card - the original one listed him as "Takashi Miura" while the corrected one lists him as "Taka Miura".  TCDB lists 23 cards for him although several of those are parallels or autograph cards.  He appeared in BBM's Giants team set every year from 2001 to 2007 and in their Lions team sets in 2008 and 2009.  His other rookie cards from 2001 are from BBM's Diamond Heroes set and Konami's Field Of 9 set (he has two cards in that set).  His only other flagship appearance was in the 2002 BBM 1st Version set.  He never had a Calbee card.  He also appeared in some team issued sets although only one of those is listed on TCDB.  Here's all the cards I have of his:

2001 BBM #284 (original version)

2002 BBM 1st Version #39

2003 BBM Giants #051

2004 BBM Giants #G65

2005 BBM Giants #G062

2006 BBM Giants #G062

2007 Giants Team Issue #54

2009 Lions Fan Club #21