Sunday, October 21, 2012

Yokohama Taiyo Whales

I got to thinking when I was doing a post on Takuro Ishii the other day - how many former Yokohama Taiyo Whales players are still playing?  Yokohama changed their name to the BayStars (or Baystars or Bay Stars - never quite got that straight) in 1993.  I took a quick look at who appeared on the Whales' final roster in 1992 and it looks like there are three guys still active.  Two of them were kind of obvious - Motonobu Tanishige and Takashi Saitoh, but I was surprised to discover that Daisuke Miura made one appearance in 1992 - pitching what looks like two scoreless innings.

There are no contemporary cards of Miura with the Whales that I'm aware of - he was drafted in the 1992 draft (fall 1991)  but his first cards aren't until 1994.  There are a couple Rookie Edition cards, however, that show him in a Whales uniform:

2003 BBM Rookie Edition #117

2010 BBM Rookie Edition #092
Obviously the 2003 card is from the 1992 draft - oddly enough, his 2007 BBM Draft Story card shows him in a BayStars uniform.

So I think there's only the three former Whales players still active - can anyone think of anyone else?

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