For the first time since 2021, baseballs have been flying out in Japanese parks at somewhat normal rates, causing Katsuhiko Nakamura, Nippon Professional Baseball’s secretary general, to issue the standard response on April 6 that NPB has not been messing with its balls.

“There has been absolutely no intentional change in specifications,” he said.

Back in the 1990s, before I worked in the mainstream media, Nakamura was in charge of ball certification and testing, a much harder job than it is now with, ostensibly, just one ball used by all 12 teams. Unfortunately, Sankei Shimbun on April 24, reported that a source attending a Nov. 10 executive committee meeting said Nakamura revealed a proposal by ball manufacturer Mizuno to increase the coefficient of restitution by winding the yarn within balls tighter, making them harder with a higher coefficient of restitution, so they retain more energy from the collision with the bat and thus fly farther.