Season to start April 10 at earliest
Japan's Central and Pacific leagues' seasons will open no earlier than April 10, Nippon Professional Baseball's 12 teams decided Thursday. Opening Day was originally scheduled for March 20. After a…
Reporting in a viral age
Colleagues from both sides of the Pacific had somethings to say about U.S. sports leagues closing their clubhouses to the media, ostensibly because of the coronavirus outbreak and not because…
NPB puts Opening Day on hold
Nippon Professional Baseball postponed the start of its 2020 regular season on Monday after an emergency meeting of the 12 teams' representatives, commissioner Atsushi Saito said. "How must we (pro…
NPB planning on delayed openers: Report
Japan's Nikkan Sports reported Sunday citing a source in reporting Nippon Professional Baseball is taking the logical precaution of making plans for a delayed start to the regular season. Despite…
Open and shut: March 7, 2020 – Welcome to Japan, Joe Gunkel
New Hanshin Tigers right-hander Joe Gunkel started Saturday's preseason game against the Nippon Ham Fighters at Koshien Stadium, and allowed seven runs in four innings. Despite the ugly totals it…
Open and shut: March 6, 2020 – Edwards’ home debut in Japan
Right-hander Jon Edwards made his debut at Japan's baseball mecca, Koshien Stadium outside Osaka on Friday. The normally loud park was subdued by the fact that Nippon Professional Baseball's spring…
Open and shut: March 4, 2020 – Full house in the Casa de PayPay
Steve Martin's career in stand up comedy picked up as I was finishing high school and starting college, and as such his humor left a mark. One routine was about…
Scout diary: Report on Yasutaka Shiomi
Yasutaka Shiomi was taken 4th by the Yakult Swallows in NPB's 2017 amateur draft. He played for corporate league powerhouse Japan Energy after graduating from Teikyo University. I haven't had…
Growing your own
The Pacific League has now won the last seven Japan Series and has a .532 interleague winning percentage. People have attributed the gap to more hard-throwing pitchers in the PL,…
Scout diary: March 3, 2020 – Swallows’ and Hawks’ wings
Tuesday's preseason game between the Yakult Swallows and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks gave me a chance to see some players for the first time. So here are my notes on some…
