Advance tickets for the Higashi Nihon Earthquake Relief Baseball Match supported by Konami go on sale begin tomorrow.

Fans can purchase tickets at the NPB official site (February 3 at 10:00 until March 9 at 23:00), or one of the following ticket agencies (February 3 at 10:00 until February 15 at 18:00): e+, Circle K Sunkus/Ticket Pia, or Lawson.

Regular tickets will go on sale beginning on February 18 at 10:00.

For more information, check the NPB official site (in Japanese).

Ticket Prices

Game 1 (University vs Industrial)

Game 3 (Samura Japan vs CPBL)

Two Game Set

* denotes tickets that will only be available via NPB's ticketing system

Komazawa University announced today that former JR Higashi Nihon Tohoku coach Akira Nishimura (37) will be taking over as the new manager of their baseball team.

Nishimura won two Best Nine awards while playing for Komazawa University.  Upon graduating, he joined JR Higashi Nihon Tohoku and became a coach for the team in 2008.

The Japan Student Baseball Association met on the 31st to determine punishments for thirteen cases (one university, twleve high school).

University Suspensions

Komazawa (Shizuoka) manager - traffic violation, delay in reporting incident - two years beginning on 12/5

Komazawa (Shizuoka) director - delay in reporting incident - six months beginning on 12/5

Game Suspensions

Kosei Gakuin Noheji Nishi (Aomori) - smoking - one month beginning on 12/5

Gamagori (Aichi) - smoking - one month, beginning on 12/17

Osaki Chuo (Miyagi) - drinking, smoking, violence within the club - six months beginning on 12/2

Zao (Miyagi) - violence within the club - one month beginning on 1/18

Suspensions

Umpire (Ehime) - larceny, tresspassing - one year beginning on 12/1

Gotsu Kogyo (Shimane) manager - violence within the club - one month beginning on 12/12

Morioka Daigaku Fuzuko (Iwate) director - violence within the club - one month beginning on 12/15

Rissho Daigaku Shonan (Shimane) coach - violence within the club - one month beginning on 12/15

Sakuyo (Okayama) director - violence within the club - one month beginning on 12/28

Umpire (Shiga) - purchasing a train ticket illegally - one year beginning on 1/5

Shiogama (Miyagi) manager - violence within the club - one month beginning on 1/25

The Aichi University Baseball League Federation held a board of directors meeting and a general meeting in Nagoya today and decided to work on decreasing the number of divisions from five to three.  The first division will remain the same with six teams; the second and third divisions will merge to form a twelve team second division; and the fourth and fifth divisions will merge to form an eleven team third division.

The changes will be effective beginning with the 2012 fall league.

The media learned today that Hideyuki Akita (56) will take over as Chuo University manager.  Current manager Yoshimasa Takahashi will be stepping down this month.

Akita played college ball at Chuo University before spending a number of years in the Chunichi Dragons' organization (1978-1982).

The NPB held a press conference at a hotel in Tokyo today and officially announced the Higashi Nihon Earthquake Relief Baseball Match scheduled on March 10 at Tokyo Dome.

Schedule:

Game 1 - Mixed Industrial League Team vs Mixed University Team - 12:00
Game 2 - Samurai Japan vs CPBL Mixed Team - 18:25

Tickets:

Via the NPB's special site: February 3 at 10am - March 9 at 23:00
Advance tickets: February 3 at 10am - February 15 at 18:00
Regular tickets: February 18 at 10am -

TBS will be broadcast both the NPB vs CPBL game and the Mixed University team vs the Mixed Industrial League team

UPDATE @ 9:24pm - All players named to the Samurai Japan roster will be receiving Samurai Japan pin badges.  Designs for the badges will change with each tournament.

Koji Akiyama on the players that were selected to the roster:

Being a title holder [was an important factor].  And within that, young players with bright futures.  Chances to play in international games do not come very often.  I think their experiences playing for Samurai Japan will lead to their successes.  We kept that in mind when making our selections.

===

Samurai Japan Roster

Additional Notes:

• Masahiro Tanaka will most likely start the game for the NPB and go about three innings.
• Takahiro Arai is the oldest player on the roster.

NPB Meetings from Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

Board of directors meeting (Sports Hochi):

• decided to donate 6M yen to the Women's Baseball Association Japan as money to be used to help strengthen the team.
• accepted DeNA's pledge as new owners of the Yokohama Bay Stars.

Executive committee meeting (Sports Hochi):

• decided to extend the three and a half hour rule to the 2012 season in order to continue conserving energy.
• finalized the roster for the March 10 charity game (results will be announced on January 26).

Pacific League meeting (Sports Hochi):

• removed suspended games from the league agreement
• confirmed an informal owner's meeting on January 27

===

The Japan Student Baseball Association held a meeting on Wednesday and named Masayuki Naito (Secretary General, JSBA & JUBF), Akira Nambara (JUBF Vice President & JSBA Director), Masao Yamaguchi (Secretary General, JHBF), and Hirotaka Nishioka (JHBF council member) to the group that will be handling discussions on requirements for becoming a student baseball coach.

The first meeting of the group could take place some time in February.

The All Japan University Baseball Federation (JUBF) announced today that they will continue to use the tie-break rules during the 2012 All Japan University Baseball Championships in order to conserve energy.  While the tie-break rules last year stipulated that extra innings begin with the bases loaded and out out, the Federation plans to take a survey on what kinds of rules should be used this year.

The JUBF also announced that they will be selecting players from universities in the Kanto region, in addition to a number of players from the Tohoku region, for the team that will be playing a charity game against a mixed Industrial League team on 3/10 at Tokyo Dome.  The rosters will be released on 1/26.  Koji Kanemitsu (Hosei University manager) will manage the team.

===

The Japan High School Baseball Federation (JHBF) announced today that they reviewed high schools that plan to offer baseball scholarships this year and confirmed that 451 schools had programs that were suitable.  There were 457 schools that offered baseball scholarships last year.

News schools: 26
Schools that stopped: 12
Schools that were over the limit (five or less per grade): 20

If the schools that went over the limit make the necessary adjustments, there will be a total 471 schools that plan to offer scholarships this year.

UPDATE 1/18 @ 2:54pm - The JHBF released the following corrections today:

New schools: 25
Schools that stopped: 11

===

In the case involving the death of a high school baseball player at Aomori Yamada High School, the media learned today that Aomori Police filed assault charges against a second year student from the same school.

According to the charges, the second year student allegedly struck two first year high school students on the night of December 18, 2011 and caused one of them to die at around 1:00am on December 19, 2011.

See also:

Aomori Yamada High School withdraws as candidate for Summer Koshien

First year Aomori Yamada baseball player dies after being hit by second year student

The media learned on Sunday that Waseda University invited Satoru Komiyama (46) to be a special coach.  Waseda will also be bringing Takeshi Yasuda (64) on board as a special coach.

Nikkan Sports mentions that former Chunichi Dragon Hideyuki Akita (56), Sakata Minami High School manager Tadayoshi Nishihara (48), and former Taiyo Whale Masayuki Nakatsuka (66) are amongst candidates being considered for the Chuo University managerial opening. All three are also Chuo University graduates.

Sponichi figures Akita is the frontrunner to land the job and will likely make a final decision by 1/15, when practices are scheduled to start.