Saturday, December 8, 2012

Kyuji Fujikawa of the Chicago Cubs

Kyuji Fujikawa, formerly of the Hanshin Tigers and the Cubs announced that they had come to an agreement last week and Fujikawa will be pitching in Wrigley Field for the next two years.

Fujikawa was drafted by Hanshin in the first round of the 1999 NPB draft (which was held in the fall of 1998).  His rookie card is #392 in the 1999 BBM set.  His appearances in the "flagship" BBM sets are somewhat sporadic over the next few years - he's in the 2001 set, but not in the 2000 set or either the 1st or 2nd Versions in 2002.  He's in the 2003 and 2004 2nd Version sets but not the 1st either year and in the 2005 1st Version set but not the 2nd.  It's not until 2006 that he started showing up in both the 1st and 2nd Version sets each year (not coincidentally, 2005 was the year he really became a star).  He's made the All Star team each season since 2005 so (logically) he's in each of the BBM All Star sets since 2005.  The Tigers have made the Nippon Series twice during his time with the team, however he only appeared in the 2005 Series so his lone BB Nippon Series set appearance is from that year.

He does not have a Calbee card until 2005 (#213) but he's had at least one card in each Calbee set since then.  He played for the Japanese team in the WBC in both 2006 and 2009, but he only has a single card (along with 11 parallel versions) in the 2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects set.  He also played on the 2008 Japanese Olympic Baseball team and has a card in BBM's set for that team.

As always, this is not a comprehensive list but merely some of the highlights.  Check out Sports Card Forum's Inventory Manager for a much more complete list (thanks to Jason).

Here's a couple of his cards (can't show the rookie card because I don't have it):

2003 BBM 2nd Version #809 (New Wave subset)

2005 Konami Baseball Heroes Black #B05B109

2006 BBM Tigers # T100

2007 BBM 2nd Version #702 (For The Ultimate! subset)

2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects #BCW39

2011 Calbee Star Card #S-16

1 comment:

Cory said...

I have zero reservations about him.

He sounded very professional at the press conference and seemed to know his pecking order right off the bat, since Marmol is officially the closer.

Looking forward to many awkward swings this year!