The Girls Professional Baseball League (GPBL) announced some major changes on Thursday.

New Name

The GPBL will now be called the Japan Women's Baseball League (JWBL).

New Teams and New Season Format

The Kyoto Asto Dreams, Hyogo Swing Smileys, and Osaka Brabee Honeys will be no more.

There will essentially be two seasons.  That means there will also be champions.

Victoria Series (regular season)

Teams: West Flora and East Astraia.

Western Japan Opening Day: March 30, 31 at Wakasa Stadium Kyoto
Eastern Japan Opening Day: April 20, 21 at Meiji Jingu Stadium 

The two teams will play a twenty-four game season that is split into two halves (twelve games each, split between Western Japan and Eastern Japan).  Each team will be able to carry up to thirty players, but only eighteen will be eligible to play on any given day.

Tiara Cup (tournament)

Teams: West Flora, South Dione, East Astraia, and North Reia.

Opening Day: April 13, 14 at Kochi Municipal Baseball Stadium

The four teams will battle it out over a two-day tournament.  Games will take place in sixteen different locations across Japan.

The four teams competing in the Tiara Cup will be made up of players from the two teams in the Victoria Series.  West Flora will be split into West Flora and South Dione.  East Astraia will be split into East Astraia and North Reia.

Source: official site, Sponichi 1/17/2013

Below is footage from the press conference (as posted by the JWBL).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TVCW9mPgKc

The Girls Professional Baseball League Awards Convention took place today.

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Awards

Titles

Best Nine

Special Award

Kakutani (MVP) Award

The Girls Professional Baseball League play a charity game against the 55 Challengers* today at Wakasa Stadium Kyoto today.  The 55 Challengers beat the GPBL 11-8.

Yasutomo Kubo (Hanshin) started the game and gave up two runs on three hits over two innings of work.

* made up of NPB players born in 1980.

Source: Daily Sports 12/15/2012

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UPDATE 12/16 @ 8:36pm - Kubo took over at second beginning in the third inning and went 2-for-2.  Source: Sports Hochi Osaka 12/16/2012

Iori Miura (Kyoto) collected hit off Kubo and Yoshisa Hirano (Orix).  Hirano is not a member of the 55 Club, but was invited to play because he is from Kyoto.

The Pro Yakyu 55 Club plans to donate about 400,000 yen (money raised from playing in the game) to help bring baseball back to disaster areas.

Source: Sponichi 12/16/2012

The Girls Professional Baseball (GPB) announced today that a team from Tokyo will be joining the league next season.  Additional details of the new team will be released some time in December.

Whether the team from Tokyo will actually compete in the GPB next season is reportedly not yet known.

Source: official announcement, Sanspo 10/29/2012

2nd Women's Baseball Japan Cup
Dates: 10/26 - 10/28
Venue: Wakasa Stadium Kyoto
Official site

Schedule and Results

* Games are 7 innings long, unless:

• excluding the Finals game, games that reach the 1.5 hour mark will not go into the next inning.
• the game won't go into extra innings (or the next extra inning) if a game is still tied after 1.5 hours. If a game ends in a tie, a drawing will be held to determine which team advances.
• the finals game will be a 7-inning game. The 1.5 hour long rule will not apply. Games will be played until a winner is decided.
• games will be considered official after 4 innings or 1.5 hours, which ever is first.
• excluding the Finals game, games will be called if one team has a 10 or more run lead after 4 innings or a 7 or more run lead after 6 innings.

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October 26

Game 1

Ended after six because the game was at 1 hour and 38 minutes.

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Game 2

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Game 3

Ended after six because the game was at 1 hour and 38 minutes.

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October 27

Game 4

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Game 5

Ended after six because of the 1.5 hour rule.

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Game 6

Ended after five because the game was at 1 hour and 29 minutes.

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Game 7

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October 28

Game 8

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Game 9

Ended after six because the game was at 1 hour and forty-seven minutes.

Kyoto won drawing to advance to the Finals.

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Game 10

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Tournament MVP: Minako Uemura

Second-Half

First-Half

2012 GPB Championship Game

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November 5

The Girls Professional Baseball League (GPBL) will be hosting the 2nd Women's Baseball Japan Cup between October 26 and 28 at Wakasa Stadium Kyoto.

The following teams will be participating in the tournament.

High School

• Kamimura Gakuen High School (Kagoshima)
• Fukuchiyama Seibi High School (Kyoto)
• Kamata Joshi High School (Tokyo)
• Saitama Sakae High School (Saitama)
• Hanasaki Tokuharu High School (Saitama)

University

• Shobi Gakuen University (Saitama)
• Heisei Kokusai University (Saitama)

Club Teams

• Asahi Trust (Tokyo)
• Samurai (Saitama)

GPBL

• Hyogo Swing Smileys (Hyogo)
• Kyoto Asto Dreams (Kyoto)
• Osaka Brabee Honeys (Osaka)

Source: official announcement, official announcement

The Girls Professional Baseball League played their second All-Star game at Hotto Motto Field Kobe on Saturday. The West beat the East, 5-0. Mika Konishi got the start and victory for the West; Hitomi Tsubouchi started and lost the game for the East.

Final Score

Time: 1h 48m

Some stats:

Mika Konishi started the game for the West and tossed three shutout innings: 3 IP, 12 BF, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 2 SO, 4 FO, 3 GO.

Iori Miura 3-for-3 (West; started in center, batted first) - walk, single to right, double to right (thrown out trying to stretch to triple), double to left (caught trying to steal third).

Miri Iwaya 2-for-3 (West; started at third, batted fifth) - RBI single to right, RBI single to right (stole second), fly out to right.

The Girls Professional Baseball League played a charity All-Star game at Sendai Municiple Stadium on Thursday.  The East beat the West, 6-1.  Kei Arai was the winning pitcher on record; Honami Ota the losing pitcher.

Final Score

Time: 1h 55m

Some stats:

Kei Arai started the game for the East and tossed three shutout innings: 3 IP, 10 BF, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 SO, 3 FO, 5 GO.

Yuki Kawabata (East; started at short, batted third) - 2-for-3 with one RBI: sac fly, ground out to second, single to center, single to left.

Hitomi Tsubouchi (East; started in center, batted sixth) - 2-for-3: single to left, sac bunt, ground out to the pitcher, single to left.

Maya Kawaho (East; starting catcher, batted fourth) - 2-for-2: RBI single to right, single to center (stole second).

Iori Miura 2-for-4 (West; started in center, batted first) - single to left (stole second), ground out to short, infield single, strikeout swinging.

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The GPBL are slated to play another All-Star game at Hotto Motto Field Kobe on August 4.  Line-ups and starters have been posted at the official league site (in Japanese).

The Girls Professional Baseball League announced today that they will be playing an All-Star game at Hotto Motto Field Kobe on August 4.  The game will start at 18:30.

Source: Sponichi 7/17/2012