Finally - Field Level Seats

I just read on the Sankei Sports web site that the Giants are allowing the fans to name the new field level seats, with the winner receiving a pair of tickets in the new seats for opening day 2005.

Well of course Orix BlueWave beat them by about two years - Yahoo! BB Stadium in Kobe has had MLB-style seats down the first base side for some time now. It'll be a pity if they phase out that ball park.

The Yokohama BayStars spent around 10 million yen to lower the netting along the foul lines, and other construction at Yokohama Stadium. You can view a picture of Hitoshi Tamura making a mock stretch into the seats in this article from Nikkan Sports. (Japanese only)

In other news, the Chiba Lotte Marines also announced they are in the planning stages to add an additional 1,000 seats along the first and third base lines of Chiba Marine Stadium for the 2006 season. The club is supposedly using Kobe's Skymark Stadium (formerly Yahoo! BB Stadium) as a model for the field level seating. The club expects construction costs to be around 270 million yen, and if the idea is approved, construction will take place from October of 2005 until February 2006.

(*The field level seats at Tokyo Dome were given the name "Excite Seats.")

Interestingly enough, I hear people here in the U.S. (radio/television) complaining how people are getting hurt by foul balls, and look to Japan as the people with the great idea of "protecting the fans from dangerous foul balls." I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side of the ocean.

For those of you living in Japan in the Kanto area, the Tokyo Giants have announced a giveaway for the special field level seats (Excite Seats). The Giants will be giving away 50 pairs of tickets (100 tickets total) to parent/child combo's for the Sunday March 27th game against the Yokohama BayStars at Tokyo Dome (13:00 start time).

To enter, send a postcard with your name, age, address, postal code, telephone number, and names of both the parent and child wishing to attend, postmarked no later than March 18 (Fri) to the address below:

"Opensen E shoutai"
Shibuya yuubinkyokudome
150-8681

Contact (03) 3797-4188 for more info (most likely Japanese only)

Source = Sankei Sports Website

[Note: I've been meaning to look into the problem with posting in Japanense since moving to the new server. For those wanting to cut and paste the address, please go to the above link and search for the 150-8681 zip code. Copy from the "yuubin" character before the zip until all but the last two characters in the sentence.]