Post-Season Schedule?

The Central League Climax Series locations are now set. The schedule is:

Oct 17 (Sat) through 19 (Mon) Chunichi hosting the third place team at Nagoya Dome (or until one team reaches 2 wins).

Oct 21 (Wed) through 26 (Mon) Giants hosting the winner of Stage I at Tokyo Dome (or until one team reaches 4 wins, with the Giants getting a one win advantage from the start).

I believe that the Pacific League Climax Series will be the same dates, but I have yet to confirm that.

The Nippon Series will be held:

Oct 31 (Sat) and Nov 1 (Sun): Pa-League home
Nov 3 (Tues) through 5 (Thur): Ce-League home
Nov 7 (Sat) and 8 (Sun): Pa-League home (if need be)

Wow, November baseball!

But this is likely to be an all-dome Japan Series, so the weather shouldn't matter. Not like MLB, where they have to shiver through night games in Boston or New York.

It looks like I'll be in Japan during the beginning of the post-season. Any idea whether it will be possible to get tickets while I'm there?

It depends on where the games are played. The first round of the Central League Climax will be in Nagoya, while Pacific League will be either Miyagi or Fukuoka.

They usually have Internet sales first and then convenient store, but I'm not sure if they have a certain number set aside for the convenience store sales or if they just get the scraps.

Last year I managed to get tickets for the Tigers games at Kyocera Dome, but I got them the minute they went on sale. For the Buffaloes games, they were far from being sold out.

This year could be more difficult. The Dragons have a big fan base, so I imagine the CS will sell out quickly, especially if it's against the Tigers. In the PL, the Hawks also have a big fan base and the size of the stadium and novelty of the first post-season appearance could make Eagles tickets difficult as well.

Your best bet is to find out when they go on sale and be there.

Why all the off time until they start the Climax Series? Don't most teams finish their make-up games around the 7th or 8th?

The inefficiency of the NPB scheduling always baffles me. The last regular season game is the Dragons-Swallows rain makeup game on Oct 11.

What happens to the Swallows vs. Giants game that was rained out last night (Monday, October 5th)? I see this has not been rescheduled but with such a close race, surely it must be played.

It will be rescheduled. It's another reason NPB needs to move to doubleheaders to fix up the schedule. They have a lot of make-up games in early October, but that is also often typhoon season, making for more rain outs.

It should be an exciting race for 3rd in the CL, but it's hard to stay concentrated on it when some teams only play every few days.

I agree, doubleheaders are necessary. There are also plenty of off-days where these games can be made up during the season.

The CL Climax Series may be closer than anticipated. If Yakult makes it, as they play all this week, the Dragons don't have a single game this week, play Sunday, then have almost another week off. The hitters' timing will likely be off and it may give the Swallows an opportunity.

The Giants are in the same position, plus they have to wait for a winner of the 2nd-3rd matchup. Yakult might get hot and shock Japan!



But I doubt it.

I doubt they will ever add doubleheaders in Japan, but wish they could do something. Look at MLB now--we have an exciting one-day playoff with the Tigers and Twins and then go straight to the playoffs tomorrow. Meanwhile in Japan, we have ten more days of a completely random schedule until the Climax Series even starts. I love the game here, just wish they could do something to add more climax to the Climax Series.

Still, at least it's an improvement over when the PL had a playoff system and the CL didn't!

There used to be doubleheaders in NPB in the pre-dome era(ish). There's the famous Kintetsu-Lotte doubleheader from October 19, 1988 (oh, that is year-1 of the dome era). Not sure why they were removed from the schedule in subsequent years.

One really ridiculous season recently had a meaningless CL makeup game being played on the same day as game 1 of the Japan Series!

As for scheduling makeup games on travel days, I think that might actually violate the Japanese Labour Law if there are no days off within a certain number of days.