Category Archives: News

Life’s unfair

Wednesday’s news from NPB was about the format of the upcoming season, and updates about what players might be delayed due to coronavirus travel restrictions. One manager, however, said some teams were being unfairly treated because new players were unable to travel.

Rakuten Eagles General Manager Kazuhisa Ishii, who this year will also manage the Pacific League club on the field, said he asked what was up with new players according to Sankei Sports.

New work visas are not being issued and only players holding residence cards are being allowed back into Japan at the moment.

The Eagles non-tendered productive outfielders Stefen Romero and Jabari Blash, and relievers J.T. Chargois and D.J. Johnson, and have since signed lefty Adam Conley and infielder Brandon Dixon. While returning relievers Sung Chia-hao and Allan Busenitz are able to return, the new signings are not.

“If we had known it was going to be like this we would have been better off keeping more of the players who were already here,” Ishii said.

Players arriving now, such as the Yomiuri Giants’ Angel Sanchez, who came Thursday, will have to quarantine for two weeks, and will mean missing the start of spring training on Feb. 1, one of the dates the media treats like life-or-death deadlines.

Big days

When it appeared Daisuke Matsuzaka would be unable to return to Japan from his offseason training base in the States, the stories were “Matsuzaka to miss the start of camp!” only to be followed by next day’s news that he was already in country and sports editors the length of the country must have imagined that the nation was going to breath a collective sigh of relief.

Managers and coaches put a lot of effort into the training programs for camp, which essentially lasts three to four weeks and is not to be confused with the preseason exhibition season or “open games” which begin in the final days of February.

The other life-or-death day of course is Opening Day, and this used to be treated by most teams as if they got extra credit for opening the season with a win. Years ago at the Yomiuri, John E. Gibson and I were instructed to translate the Japanese paper’s copy ahead of the Mariners and Oakland A’s Opening series at Tokyo Dome.

One of the Yomiuri Shimbun stories had the line: “Ichiro will try hard to have a good game on Opening Day, since how a player does on Opening Day is a barometer of how his season will go.”

This is probably a little extreme but it pretty typical of the mindless drivel written about Opening Day in the Japanese press. Managers used to parrot it, too, but recently have bowed to logic, that it’s nice to be ready on Day 1, but that one game is still just one game.

Then again, maybe it’s not just Japan. Maybe hyperbola is in baseball’s DNA. But the start of camp is also a respite from the news about who and how players will be arriving in camp.

The middle of January is filled with news about which players will be in first-team spring training camp and who will be reporting to the minor league camp on Feb. 1.

Two of last year’s most highly touted young pitchers, Roki Sasaki of the Marines and Yasunobu Okugawa of the Swallows will report to first-team camp, while young Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami will be with the first team after a bout with coronavirus although on a separate training menu.

It’s enough to make one long for stories about how many balls in a player’s first BP go over the fence.

Lions reach agreement with Dermody

The PL’s Seibu Lions announced Thursday that 30-year-old former Chicago Cub lefty Matt Dermody has agreed to sign a contract, although nothing was announced other than that he’ll wear No. 98.

10-inning games for 2021

Nippon Professional Baseball’s 12 managers met online Wednesday, when NPB reiterated its plan to have the 143-game schedule it’s been operating under since 2015, but will keep the 10-inning limit imposed last season as a response to the coronavirus.

Active rosters will remain at 31 instead of 29 with five imports allowed on the active roster and four eligible to play.

As reported earlier, the Central League will not adopt the designated hitter rule for its league games and both leagues will pass on adopting Major League Baseball’s three-batter minimum.

NPB also announced that the eight teams holding spring training camps in Okinawa have agreed to the prefecture’s request that their camps be closed to the public. Teams training in Miyazaki prefecture have already said their training there will be held behind closed doors.

BayStars imports not expected on time

New DeNA BayStars manager Daisuke Miura may need better luck from the umpires this year after telling reporters Wednesday that the club’s imported players are not expected to arrive in Japan in time for camp, Sponichi Annex reported.

The Japanese government has ostensibly suspended its exemption for non-resident athletes, but some players have arrived since that exemption — supposed to run at least until Feb. 7 — went into force.

Hanshin unveils Tigers Women

The Hanshin Tigers Women were unveiled at a Wednesday press conference when the players’ numbers were announced, and 28-year-old Iori Miura was introduced as the team’s first captain, Daily Sports reported.

The women’s uniforms appear identical to the Tigers’ regular kit, something that Miura, a veteran of Japan’s professional women’s league, commented on.

“I am happy to be able to play games in this uniform, and I feel some pressure since it’s one everyone knows,” Miura said.

Another former pro, Minami Takatsuka, said it would be good for women’s baseball that they are wearing the same uniform as Hanshin’s storied men’s club.

“It’s a good way to promote not only women’s baseball but the game itself. I hope to be a role model,” said Takatsuka.

Perhaps the team can start by having a sitdown with the Daily Sports— the Tigers’ main paper since one of their pieces described Takatsuka as “a too beautiful outfielder.”

The Seibu Lions have also formed a women’s team, not named the Cougars, as the number of women’s hard-ball clubs continues to increase around the country. Hopefully, the other 10 NPB clubs can get with the program, although I’m sure they could find better names.

Cows might be bad for Orix’s team, but “Buffalo Girls” — as in the song James Stewart sings in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” might work. Carp Joshi might be good, too, although that would leave a nation full of the team’s female “Carp joshi” followers who are not on the team. I also wonder how many women would want to be known as Dragon Ladies.