Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Akihisa Makida

Akihisa Makida of the Eagles decided to retire after being released at the end of the season.  Makita was drafted out of high school in the fifth round of the fall 2000 draft by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.  He spent four seasons with Kintetsu's farm team, never playing for the ichi-gun team.  He moved to the newly formed Eagles team in the player distribution draft that took place when Kintetsu "merged" with Orix following the 2004 season.  He made his ichi-gun debut in July of 2005.  He spent most of the following six seasons bouncing between the farm and top teams and he spent the 2008 season completely with the ni-gun team due to an elbow injury.  He was a regular for pretty much the only time in his career in 2012, when he played in 123 games and hit .225.  He was back to being a part time player and spending time with the farm team in 2013 but he did make the Eagles roster for the Nippon Series and homered in Game 7 against the Giants, the final run in the Eagles 3-0 Series-clinching victory.  His playing time picked up some in 2014 and 2015 but he only made 16 appearances with the top team in 2016.  He is the final original Eagles player to still be with the team - the only other 2005 Eagles who are still active are Katsuhiko Saka of the Tigers (who only played on the Eagles farm team in 2005) and Hisashi Iwakuma of the Mariners.

Makida's rookie card is #508 from the 2001 BBM set.  His first Calbee card was not until 2009 when he appeared in the "Hot Player" subset (#HP05) and he didn't have a "regular" Calbee card until 2012 (#099) which would be the only one he would have.

2001 BBM #508

2007 BBM 1st Version #210

2011 BBM 1st Version #157

2012 Calbee #099

2013 BBM Classic #059

2016 BBM 1st Version #155

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