The Island League Nagasaki Saints are apparently in financial trouble.

According to club owner Tetsuro Jitozo, Nagasaki has only been able to secure 26M of the 80M yen in funding they'll need in order to play out a full season.  The 26M yen would likely take them through to some time in May.  The club has already submitted requests to the coaches and players to see if they can negotiate lower salaries.

The Saints are currently thinking about offering fan club packages that will cost 2,000 yen a pop.

The Industrial League Nissan Baseball team ceased operations after the 2009 season.  Now it seems the members of that team are working on creating a new team called the Kanda Victories Baseball Club (苅田ビクトリーズベースボールクラブ).

The former manager of the team, Katsumasa Takai (高井克昌) will be the manager of the new team; Ryoichi Azuma (東良一) will be the representative.

There are currently 18 players on the team, comprised of some of the 26 players on the roster from last season, as well as a number of coaches and former players that are looking to make a comeback.  In all, they are hoping to round up about 25 players (they're set to hold tryouts at some point in the near future).

Nissan (the company), will not be involved in the operations of the team, but have given them permission to use their field and indoor training facilities.

The Korea Haechi (Kansai Independent League) held a press conference on Friday in Osaka to introduce their team and their players to the media.  Manager Chul-Woo Park spoke at the press conference and told reporters that they joined the league in order to win and that the team will do it's best regardless of the opponent.

For more information about the team, check out the official Korea Haechi website.  On a side note, the site doesn't seem to like Firefox very much.

The Kansai Independent League held a press conference on Wednesday to announce that the first half of the season will begin on the 28th with 4 teams playing 36 games a piece with the final game on 6/27.

The League also announced that the official "nickname" for the league will be KANDOK, as in KANsai DOKuritsu.

The college player that made headlines for almost signing a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies has passed tryouts with the Tokushima Indigo Socks (Island League).  Assuming everything goes smoothly during the negotiation process, Hiroya Yamamura could be signing a contract with Tokushima some time this week.

The Island League announced on Friday that their season will begin on April 3rd.  The league will play with following five teams in 2010: the  Ehime Mandarin Pirates, the Kagawa Olive Guyners, the Kochi Fighting Dogs, the Tokushima Indigo Socks, and the Nagasaki Saints.

(The Fukuoka Red Warblers will not be participating in the league this year due to insufficient funding.)

The Japan Future Baseball League will also begin on 4/3.  They will start their first year with two teams: Mie Three Arrows and the Osaka Gold Villicanes.

Sports Community Fukui officially agreed to hand control of the Fukui Miracle Elephants over to Fukui Kenmin Kyudan during a stockholders meeting on the 25th.

Fukui Kenmin Kyudan is a company wholly-owned by Fukui Shimbun.  They are hoping to make the Fukui Miracle Elephants a team owned by the citizens of Fukui.

The Ishikawa Million Stars announced on Friday that they signed infielder Mitsuru Honma (37).  Honma was released by the Softbank Hawks on 10/3/2009 and tried to latch on with another NPB team by attending the 12 team tryouts, but could not.

The Fukui Miracle Elephants announced on Friday that they hired Tomohiro Tanimura to be their pitching coach for the 2010 season.

Sports Community Fukui, the company that runs the Fukui Miracle Elephants out of the BC League, is apparently dissolving due to economic difficulties.  But that shouldn't spell the end of the Miracle Elephants as there are discussions about the team being handed off to a new company that will be wholly-owned by Fukui Shimbun.  This proposal will be further discussed at an upcoming shareholders meeting on the 25th.

Sports Community Fukui ended December 80M yen in the red.  The transfer over to Fukui Shimbun will allow the team to continue playing (the coaches and players will all be returning for the 2010 season) under somewhat stable economic conditions while it continues figure out new ways to secure funding.