Current NPB Break -- What For?

It's padding in the schedule for inter-league makeup games. Inter-league is a kind of season in a season, so they want to get it completed before continuing with the regular season. Due to this being rainy season (although quite mild this year), they try to leave a long enough buffer at the end to make up all of the games.

It was really quite amazing how quickly rained out games were made up this year. I wish they'd adopt this policy during the regular season and shorten the gap between season and post-season in October. But that's highly unlikely. (Still, I didn't expect to ever see inter-league games happen, so I won't count it out completely.)

Yeah, in addition to having a couple off days per week during inter-league play, there is also a big chunk of time off before returning to the "normal" season. It really is frustrating, as next month we'll have another long break because they also, for some reason, play more than one All-Star game in Japan. The one good thing about the break is I can at least say the Tigers haven't lost all week!

Yep, complete amateur hour the way Japanese baseball is run. It wouldn't be tolerated elsewhere. I can't think of another professional sport that is marketed as poorly as Japanese baseball. The result of old stubborn men running the game.

Speaking of the next annoying break -- the All-Star break -- is there any special reason they have to play 2 games here? Is it to give one game to a CL stadium and one to PL? Or just considered an extra fan service? Personally I remember being excited by all-star games when I was about 9 years old, but not anymore. I'd rather just get on with the pennant race.

I think the All Star games are one of the few sources of revenue for the Players Association's meager pension plan. Lack of collective bargaining power at work here.

I wonder where all of these totally negative people have wandered in from recently -- seems there's been a lot of these sorts of posts.

Anyway, I don't know about others, but I actually appreciate the week off, because being a fan here in Japan can be pretty exhausting. Plus it gives the teams neat opportunities to do stuff with their minor-league teams and whatnot (the Fighters had an inter-squad game the other day, which I totally would have gone to if I didn't have to work - and I was told that the Tigers were actually showing ni-gun games on TV for the week, which is also a great opportunity to see players you can't usually see).

The other nice effect of these breaks is that the season lasts longer; as a baseball fan I'd totally rather have a 2-month off-season than a 6-month off-season.

And it's only 4 days off -- barely that long, really.

- I wonder where all of these totally negative people have wandered in from recently -- seems there's been a lot of these sorts of posts.

Perhaps this explains the influx of totally negative people [SlashDot].

Deanna, if our teams change places in the standings (Tigers 1st and Fighters 5th), I'll be more positive!

I'm still hoping for our teams to swap spots. ;-P

- I'm still hoping for our teams to swap spots. ;-P

If Miura pitches against us every time, you just might catch us! Definitely a big loss that we couldn't steal him from you!