the almost daily dodger - hiroki kuroda

i saw a clip on the mlb app recently where an active player from japan (can't remember who it was) was asked for their all-time japanese starting nine. i don't recall all of the players, but the pitchers that were mentioned were yu darvish and daisuke matsuzaka. i was waiting to see if hideo nomo would get a mention, but he did not.

the dodgers have had several pitchers who came from japan, and while we wait for shohei ohtani to make his dodger mound debut next season, i figured i would share some cards from my scanned folder of another dodger pitcher from the land of the rising sun - hiroki kuroda

here's his 2008 topps triple threads base card

that finished the team set for me

this is his 2010 topps chrome refractor parallel

and this one is the 2011 topps cognac diamond anniversary parallel

the refractor completed my team set as well, but i still need a few more of the "liquorfractors" to finish the 2011 parallel set.

by my count, the dodgers have had 7 pitchers from japan in their history, starting with nomo. he was followed by kaz ishii, takashi saito, and then kuroda. since kuroda pitched for the dodgers, they have employed kenta maeda, darvish, and now yoshinobu yamamoto.

kuroda, who won 79 games in his major league career (spent with the dodgers and yankees) sits third all-time in that category among japanese pitchers, behind nomo and darvish. some fellow dodgers keeping him company!