Monday, July 25, 2011

Card Of The Week July 24

Yakyu Baka had a link the other day to an article in the New York Times about former Hanshin Tiger and current Yankee farmhand Kei Igawa.  Igawa signed with the Yankees prior to the 2007 season after Hanshin posted him and the Yankees paid $26 million for his rights.  This was just after the Red Sox had blown everyone away by bidding over $50 million for the rights for Daisuke Matsuzaka and apparently the Yankees felt that they were losing the Japanese arms race.  Which isn't to imply that signing Igawa was a bad idea at the time, but, as the article explains, it really didn't work out well and the Yankees eventually buried him in the farm system.  (While Matsuzaka has been immensly frustrating to watch the past couple years for the Red Sox, they did win a World Series with him in the rotation in 2007 and as a lifelong Red Sox fan who suffered until 2004, to me that $100 million of John Henry's money it took to get Matsuzaka was worth every penny.)

Anyway, Igawa's departure from the Tigers was commemorated by a three card "Good Luck" subset in the 2007 BBM Tigers set.  Here's card #T117:

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