The 2024 Japanese Baseball Hall Of Fame class was announced today. The Player's Division elected former Hiroshima Toyo Carp (and Dodger and Yankee) pitcher Hiroki Kuroda and former Yokohama Taiyo Whale/Baystar and Chunichi Dragon catcher Motonobu Tanishige. Tanishige was also player-manager with the Dragons for a couple of years in the teens. The Special Committee elected former umpire Tomoichi Tanimura while the Expert Division didn't elect anyone - former Hanshin Tiger Masayuki Kakefu narrowly missed being selected, getting 109 of the 111 votes he needed to gain admittance.
I think Kuroda is the eighth former MLB player to be elected to the Japanese HOF following Lefty O'Doul, Randy Bass, Hideo Nomo, Alex Ramirez, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Hideki Matsui and Shingo Takatsu.
Hiroki Kuroda
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| 1997 BBM #496 |
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| 2007 Calbee #096 |
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| 2017 BBM Retirement #02 |
Motonobu Tanishige
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| 1989 Takara Whales #1 |
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| 2001 Upper Deck Victory #017 |
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| 2016 BBM Retirement #03 |
I updated the spread sheet I have listing all the Hall Of Famers in BBM's flagship sets over the years (the one I used to identify
the sets with the most Hall Of Famers and
the sets with the most Hall Of Fame players). 1994 is still the set with the most Hall Of Fame players with 17 while 1991 remains the set with the most Hall Of Famers (players and managers) with 25. Since Kuroda was last active in 2016, that's now the most recent year to feature a Hall Of Fame player.
