Now it is Baseball's turn to take a hit!

Japans J-League kicked off recently, had 1 round (Albirex at the top of the pile!Woo!) but then suspended operations until the middle of next month at the earliest because of the earthquake/tsunami double whammy that the Tohoku region of Japan was struck by earlier this month (please donate!) .

Now, it is the turn of Japan's baseball league to make a few decisions, and here we go!

Japan has a 2 league structure, governed by the NPB

The professional leagues in Japan feature 12 teams spread round Japan (but with most clustered round Tokyo, and a few in the Kansai region). These twelve teams are then split into 2 leagues of 6. The Central League, and the Pacific League.

The Pacific League consists of:

Chiba Lotte Marines, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Orix Buffaloes, Saitama Seibu Lions, and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. 

The Central League consists of:

Chunichi Dragons, Hanshin Fighters, Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Yokohama BayStars, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and the Yomiuri Giants.

with the recent earthquake in the Tohoku region, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have been directly hit, with their home stadium, the Kleenex Stadium in Miyagi, suffering damage in the recent calamity.

This does leave the Eagles in a bit of a bind. The team itself is under no threat, as they where all away south for pre-season training when the earthquake hit. Since then, they have been busy trying to raise money for their affected home area. 

They do, however, have the option to relocate south to their "back up" stadium in Kobe...

So, what has baseball done? Well the Central League is going to start as planned, with no delay. The Pacific League, which hosts the Eagles, has decided to delay the start of play to April 12. Also, they ave decided to scrap all night games in April. This is due to a lot of their teams playing in areas affected by power shortages brought about by the quake knocking out the Fukushima power plant, and affecting many other plants.

It also looks likely that across Japanese baseball, there will be a move to limit night play in order to reduce the demand for electricity in order to help with the current energy problems.

And because this is all slightly depressing, here is something to cheer you up...