May 1, 2021
Wednesday marked three months until the start of the Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament assuming the coronavirus doesn’t blow another fastball past the organizers, who, if we’re being honest, are probably sitting on a 2-2 count at best.
Let’s assume, however, the games will take place.
The original plan for Samurai Japan was to use the Premier12 in November 2019 as a final testing ground and head into the Olympics the following summer. That was before the postponement of the games in March 2020.
It’s now been over a year since Samurai Japan’s victory over South Korea in the Premier12 final. The extra time has given manager Atsunori Inaba more things to think about as he goes about building a squad that can capture Japan’s first Olympic gold medal in baseball.
Apr 26, 2021
Last week began with a crowd of 17,712 at Tokyo Dome for a showdown between the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants, the top two teams in the Central League.
There were 15,345 fans present at the Big Egg on Sunday, when the Kyojin faced the Hiroshima Carp.
The tally for this week, however, will be zero, as Japanese baseball moves partially behind closed doors due to the start of Japan’s third state of emergency covering Tokyo, Hyogo, Kyoto and Osaka prefectures on Sunday Starting Tuesday, games hosted at Tokyo Dome, Jingu Stadium, Koshien Stadium and Osaka Dome will be played in front of empty seats until the measure ends, which is scheduled to happen May 11. Five games were postponed in hopes they can be played in front of fans at later dates.
There were two 2021 debuts that merited attention in NPB on Saturday.
One was the return of Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who stepped back on an NPB mound for the first time since 2013. The other was a relief appearance by Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks pitcher Carter Stewart Jr. against the Seibu Lions at MetLife Dome in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture.
Tanaka garnered most of the headlines, but Stewart’s first steps in NPB could have a greater impact in the long run.
Stewart was called upon to mop up in the ninth inning of the Hawks’ 7-1 win over the Lions. He threw 19 pitches, walked the first batter he faced, struck out two and topped out at 153 kph (95 mph) in a scoreless inning.