We definitely had some. Hideki Matsui. Kazuhiro Sasaki. Dice-K. Yu Darvish. We're still getting them (I truly wish Shohei Ohtani the best, especially since I started collecting his cards this year). I just wish one of the leading lights had been Tsuyoshi Shinjo. Oh man were we excited when the San Francisco Giants signed him for the 2002 season. He'd just come off a really strong first year with the New York Mets, and with Ichiro scorching up the American League, it was possible - maybe? - that Shinjo might end up being, if not his National League equivalent, at least the guy who might send SF to their first World Series in 13 years, maybe?
Hey, as it turns out, the Giants did go to the World Series that year, famously losing out to the Angels in 7 games. It's just that Shinjo barely played any part in it. I remember him meekly coming up to pinch-hit in the 9th inning of Game 7 and being really bummed. He struck out. He'd had a pretty rough year, hitting .238 with an OBP of .294. A little pop - 9 homers in 362 at bats - but not enough. We basically gave him back to the Mets the following year, and Shinjo was out of baseball the year after that (actually, that's not true - he went back to Japan and put up decent numbers for the Nippon Ham Fighters for 3 more years).
I'm glad about that last bit. Shinjo may not have been the savior we'd hoped he'd be, but he was the first Japan-born player to ever play in a World Series. He put up some quality at-bats in 2002, if you ignore all the ones in which he didn't. And Shinjomania was very much a thing during the Spring of 2002 in the San Francisco Bay Area. In honor of that, I've collected a few of the man's cards.
I thought Shinjo was going to be good. He was the first guy I got a game-used bat card of, purchasing his ‘02 Topps Reserve bat card from my LCS. In ‘03, I saw the Mets play the Tigers in spring training, and was wanting so bad for him to sign it. He walked on the bus without stopping to sign, but there were a drove of people calling for him, and you should’ve seen all of the Japanese reporters, even in the start of his 3rd season.
ReplyDeletei had the good fortune (and foresight?) to draft ichiro in my 2001 fantasy baseball league. after that, i was partial to all incoming japanese players, and was disappointed after drafting kaz ishii in particular the following year. kaz matsui had me excited on opening day, but not much after that.
ReplyDeleteThat 2002 DK card is awesome. Don't remember much about Shinjo with the Giants. Mostly remember him with the Mets.
ReplyDeleteFuji, I love that you can live in the Bay Area and block out the Giants as well as you do. Here I was succumbing to Shinjomania and you were happily following the Swingin' A's...
DeleteActually... even though they were right up there as my least favorite team with the NY Yankees... I actually did keep up with the Giants for the majority of my lifetime. But Shinjomania just slipped past me... which is weird, because I was totally following Bonds and Kent back in 2002.
DeleteI was a big fan of Shinjo during his brief MLB career - I particularly remember being excited to find a game-used bat card of his at a card show when I was a kid. Still sad he didn't pan out here.
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