There was a press conference in Nagoya on Friday that announced the start of a new industrial league team called Rookies.  The team will be accepting a variety of players, including females; players that dropped out of high school; and players that had to quit their high school baseball teams for whatever reason.

The team will also apparently try to provide support to dropouts players by helping them get the necessary credits to graduate.

The Rookies team is also hoping to gain NPO (non-profit organization) status.

Sponichi announced the schedule for the 65th Tokyo Sponichi Tournament. They are as follows:

Block Divisions

Schedule

Complete list of teams taking part in the tournament.

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Source: Sponichi

The Japan Baseball Rules Committee (日本野球規則委員会) met on the 28th and officially decided on the following (effective 2/15):

Ambidextrous pitchers will not be able to switch hands during an at bat.  They will be allowed to switch hands if there is an injury during an at bat.

NPB first and third base coaches will be required to wear helmets.

And catchers in the Amateur Leagues will be given warnings if their feet step outside of the designated areas.

Tokai University Sugao High School will not be included in a list of schools eligible to compete at the Spring Koshien after a 2nd year student on the baseball team was caught beating two 1st year teammates for having a bad attitude (oh, the irony) during practice on the 20th.

Further, Orio High School (Fukuoka) has been taken off the list of eligible schools for the 21st Century block after a student was caught smoking.

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The Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA) is thinking about creating a one license system for umpires that work in the Industrial League, University Leagues, and High Schools Leagues.  There would be a number of levels to the license and the level would determine where an umpire would be able to work.

JABA is hoping that creating a one license system might help make umpiring appealing to younger people.

JABA is also thinking about setting up an umpiring school as well.

The Japan Amateur Baseball Association's Kanto chapter held a general meeting on Wednesday to discuss budgets and plans for 2010.

The schedules for the 37th Annual Industrial League vs Tokyo Big 6 Tournament (3/27-29) were also confirmed (Sumitomo Metal Kashima will take on Waseday University on 3/28).

About 100 people from 19 different teams showed up for the meeting.

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Waseda University posted their exhibition game schedules on Wednesday.

65th Tokyo Sponichi Tournament

Begins: March 19th
Ends: March 22nd

Venues: Chiba Marine Stadium, Ohmiya Stadium, Jingu Stadium

Tournament Schedule

Teams

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Source: Sponichi

Eri Yoshida took off for the States on Sunday in order to take part in the Arizona Winter Leagues (she'll be playing for the Yuma Scorpions).

In a post on her personal blog, she told readers that she was a little nervous but was looking forward to the challenge and wanted to go all out so as not to have any regrets.

She also told reporters that she'd like Tim Wakefield to know of her attempt to play in the US and that her ultimate dream would be to pitch a game against him.

Assuming she doesn't get bombarded by any offers in the States, Yoshida will return to Japan on March 2nd and officially sign a deal with the Mie Three Arrows of the Japan Future Baseball League.

The Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA) announced on Thursday that Masatake Matsuda resigned as chairman of the association due to health concerns.  Norio Ichino (Tokyo Gas chairman) has been selected to take over.

The resignation and appointment will be made official during the next board of trustees meeting on 2/24.

Matsuda was in the middle of a third term as chairman.  He will now become an honorary president.

(Chairman terms are 2 years long.)

Felipe Natel (フェリペ・ナテル), currently playing for Yamaha in the Industrial League, is beginning to gain some interest from a number of NPB teams.  But Yamaha is trying to get Natel to stay with the team for one more year because it would allow him to enter the 2011 draft as a Japanese player.  And at this point it seem likely that Natel will stay with the team for another year.

Natel is a 20-year-old, right-handed pitcher that stands at 176cm and weight in at 84kg.  He features a plus fastball that tops out close to 150km/h and a slider in the 130km/h range.  He might throw something else, but those are the only two pitches I see listed next to his name in most reports I've ready on him.

Last season, he tossed 54.1 innings over 12 games and surrendered 35 hits, 30 walks + HBPs, struck out 46, and had an 0.99 ERA.

Tokyo Gas announced on Friday that their team website was hit by the Gumblar virus.  The server their site resides on was apparently infected some time on the evening of the 6th.  It wasn't until the afternoon on the 14th that their techs realized something was wrong.  During that period, it seems there's a possibility that about 1,400 PCs were infected by the virus.