NPB to Return June 19, Play Reduced 120-Game Schedule
Baseball, the sport near and dear to the hearts of Americans, continues to be a missing piece in the sports landscape in North America. While the NHL announced their intent for a return to play on Tuesday afternoon, confirming what everyone had already known, and the NBA is steaming toward their potential return, major league baseball has been paused since March 12. Opening Day was slated to be two months ago but due to COVID-19, things haven’t moved forward as of yet. The owners have approved a proposal to get back into action but they have yet to hammer things out with the players.
That has left fans with a burning desire (or hole in their pocket) to see (or bet) on baseball limited to options overseas. The KBO has made a bit of an impact as the league hammered out a TV deal with ESPN to show baseball six days a week to a nation starved for sports action. There are several former major league players on the rosters in the KBO but the team names aren’t familiar to most casual fans. Then there is the CPBL in Taiwan, a five-team league that was the first baseball league to return to action last month. They even have fans in the stands, though it’s on a limited basis.
Now, there’s a set return date for another league, and again, it comes from the other side of the world. The Nippon Professional Baseball, the highest level of baseball in the Land of the Rising Sun, is now set to open their season on June 19.
As it stands, the league announced that the league will be allowed to start exhibition games on June 2. The schedule will be shortened from 143 games to 120 due to the delays in the season. In addition to that, the NPB All-Star Game along with all interleague action will be canceled this season to ensure that the league can get in as many games as possible. The decision was announced after the 12 teams of the league met on Monday and made the decision to get back to action. In an online press conference Monday, commissioner Atsushi Saito had this to say about the league’s return:
"I am very pleased we could settle on an Opening Day. But we will prepare. It is important to proceed carefully to protect the players, the people connected with the game and their families. We have created detailed guidelines so we can safely hold games."
The decision was made after the government lifted the nationwide state of emergency for the five remaining prefectures under it on Monday. That helped make the return of baseball in the country possible, though, as has been the norm, there will be no fans in attendance. The hope is that the league can get to a point later in the year to have fans in the stands. It is something that will be monitored going forward. Originally, the season was scheduled to start on March 20 before being postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's good to see that another baseball league is returning, even in another country. Perhaps the NPB, along with the KBO and the CPBL, will help give guidance to MLB about the best way to return to action. If nothing else, it will give fans and bettors another option to look at in just a few weeks in order to get their fix.