I love the WBC, but Opening Day is still special. This year marks my return to baseball writing after being forced to take a sabbatical for most of 2025.
Before getting to the games, it is worth noting that NPB has done away with its two minor leagues, the Eastern and Western leagues, and replaced them with a single Farm League, broken into three divisions.
The warning
Another new feature of NPB’s website is a red warning label describing NPB’s clear prohibition against fans sharing photos or videos of players during games.
As some of you may recall, NPB established this rule last year. The rules explicitly said those wishing to share photos and videos of games could do so with the express permission of the home team.
Since becoming a tour guide last year, I have begun tuning into Facebook groups for visitors to Japan, holy mother of Jones, is there a shit load of misinformation being passed around as absolute truths about Japan, such as “Japanese always follow the rules.”
If Japanese all followed the rules, the Tokyo subways wouldn’t have posters reminding riders not to spit, strike, kick, or shout at subway staff.
When I quiz my guests if they know the rule for what to do with trash in hand when out and about, they say, “take it with you until you get home or to your hotel,” and that IS the Japan rule, but as often as not, Japanese will take their trash home– provided they don’t first come across a convenience store with a bin that says “Our bin is not for your household trash,” because that is where it will likely go.
What I mean to say, is that if you want to understand Japan, you need to pay careful attention to what people do, rather than what they say. In my experience, Japanese rarely ever criticize rules in public, but disregard them when necessary.
In the case of fans sharing photos and videos, what wasn’t said in the rule is that NPB would not tolerate teams giving fans permission to do so. The Nippon Ham Fighters then did Japan a favor by publicly giving blanket permission for fans to share photos or videos of players at their home games, knowing full well that NPB would then be forced to admit its rule was 100 percent bullshit by explaining that such permission was not to be given.
What I mean to say, is that if you really want to understand Japan, you need to pay careful attention to what people do, rather than what they say. In my experience, Japanese rarely ever criticize rules in public, but disregard them when necessary.
Happy anniversary
On April 29, Japanese pro baseball will mark the 90th birthday of professional league play, but I doubt we will hear much about it, because NPB spent so much energy a few years ago touting the 90th anniversary of pro baseball in Japan, with the formation of the Yomiuri Giants’ forerunners, in 1934 – five years after Japan’s first pro baseball organization disbanded.
The Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, despite its exhibits on the 1920 founding of pro baseball in Japan, was forced to promote the 90th anniversary of Yomiuri pro baseball bullshit because the Yomiuri Giants run NPB the way the Tokugawa clan ran Japan from 1603 to 1868, by freezing systems in place to ensure their primacy by stifling change and growth.
Friday’s games
Giants 3, Tigers 1: Lefty Kazuyuki Takemaru, Yomiuri’s first draft pick last autumn, struck out five while allowing a run over six innings, while Hanshin’s Shoki Murakami surrendered homers to the Giants’ Trey Cabbage, a first-inning leadoff shot, and Bobby Dalbec.
Hawks 6, Fighters 5: Six home runs were hit in Fukuoka, with Hiromi Ito, Japan’s losing pitcher in the WBC quarterfinals, picking up where he left off by blowing a three-run lead by surrendering five runs on three jacks. Ryoya Kurihara, whose first-inning error cost the Hawks a first-inning run, brought SoftBank within one with a two-run second-inning shot. Kensuke Kondo, who has a horrible WBC, tied it 3-3 with a third-inning homer, and Hotaka Yamakawa made it 4-4 in the fourth with his solo shot.
The Fighters tied it 5-5 in the seventh on former Hawk Shun Mizutani’s solo shot, but Taiwan international Gu Lin Ruei-yang surrendered the go-ahead run in the eighth, when Taisei Makihara, who doubled in a sixth-inning run, delivered a tie-breaking sacrifice fly.
Swallows 3, BayStars 2: There were three homers on a rainy night in Yokohama. Shugo Maki hit the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first over the wall. Yakult’s Ryui Ito hit a two-run shot off a straight flat cutter from DeNA ace Katsuki Azuma. Domingo Santana belted a solo shot, and the Swallows held on.
Eagles 10, Buffaloes 0: Rakuten right-hander Kosei Shoji throttled Orix, striking out eight in a 105-pitch, eight-inning start, while the Eagles tattooed for eight runs, two earned, on eight hits and a walk in 1-2/3 innings, Miyagi surrendering four-straight hits after Ryo Ota’s error extended the second inning with the Buffaloes trailing 2-0.
Marines 3, Lions 1: Lotte lefty Kaito Mori, the Marines’ second pick last autumn, allowed four hits over five scoreless innings to earn the win after Kou Matsukawa, twice singled in runs for the Marines. Matsukawa, who dropped out of sight the last three seasons after being in the limelight for catch Roki Sasaki’s perfect game and subsequent eight perfect innings in 2022, got the Opening Day start.
Carp 6, Dragons 5: Ren Hirakawa’s three-run ninth-inning double tied it for Hiroshima, and first-year infielder Naru Katsuda won it in the 10th with his pro hit, a two-out single after starting his career 0-for-4. Yuya Yanagi started and allowed a run in six innings for Chunichi.
