The Museum of Hanshin Koshien Stadium will be running a special Akihiro Yano retirement exhibit between 10/19 and 2/13.  Items like Yano's uniform, baseball glove, photographs, and film will be available for viewing.

The Hanshin Tigers will be holding a retirement ceremony for Akihiro Yano after tonight's game against the Yokohama Bay Stars.  And with Yano getting added to the active roster today, it seems he may also get a chance to play with the Ichi-gun roster at Koshien Stadium one last time before he retires at the end of the season.

Of course, depending on the flow of the game, Yano may not get a chance to play -- the Tigers obviously aren't going to risk a possible league title just to get Yano into the game.

Akihiro Yano (HAN) played in the Hanshin Tigers' final Ni-gun game of the season on Saturday. Yano entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning, with the score tied at 2 and a runner on first and one out, and helped set up the go ahead run with a single to left. In the 9th inning, he got to catch his good friend, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, for the last time in his career.  In the end, the Tigers went on to beat the Chunichi Dragons, 3-2.

After the game, the Ni-gun Tigers held a mini retirement ceremony for the 41-year-old catcher.  And both Ni-gun teams tossed Yano up into the air 5 times (Yano started his career with the Dragons).

The Hanshin Tigers also decided on Saturday that they will hold a retirement ceremony for Yano after their final game of the season at Koshien Stadium (9/30 vs Yokohama Bay Stars).

11:03pm JST

The Tigers held a press conference earlier today to officially announce Yano's retirement.  Sanspo has posted some of what was said at the press conference (in Japanese).

12:38pm JST

Akihiro Yano (HAN) held a meeting with the Tigers yesterday in order to inform them of his desire to retire at the end of the season.  While Yano wanted another chance to play at Ichi-gun again, it seems he felt he was also becoming a burden to the team.  I'm guessing that Yano's right elbow wasn't getting any better and he finally decided to hang them up.

The Tigers would like to hold a retirement ceremony for Yano, but will first need to see how things play out with their pennant chase.