Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Kazuyoshi Tatsunami

Kazuyoshi Tatsunami announced that he would be retiring after the end of the season. Tatsunami has been a fixture for Chunichi since his rookie of the year winning debut in 1988. He's a member of the Meikyukai, an 11 time All Star and a 5 time Gold Glove winner (at three different positions). He has the record for most career doubles in NPB. His entry at Baseball Reference's bullpen says that he is a player "who does everything well...but has no trademark skill to make him stand out from the crowd". The Dragons have only gone to eight Nippon Series in their history - he's been part of five of those teams (with the possibility of another this year).

Here's an assortment of cards from across his career:








Starting from the top is the 1988 Takara Dragons card, 1989 Mermaid Data (#3), 1994 BBM (#296), 2001 Upper Deck (#55), 2002 Calbee "Sayonora Home Run" (#SH-6), 2007 BBM Nippon Series (#S17) and 2009 BBM 1st Version (#306).

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