Former Kintetsu Buffalo and former Osaka Gold Villicanes manager Takayuki Murakami is working on putting together a new baseball team (under an NPO company called Sports Creation out of Osaka) for the Kansai Independent Baseball League (KANDOK).  The league has already approved his application.

The Osaka Hawks Dream (Kansai Independent League) announced that they dismissed former manager Minoru Tanaka after he was arrested on fraud charges.  General head of the team, Hiromitsu Kadota, will be taking over as the new manager of the team.

Former Nippon Ham OF and current Osaka Hawks Dream manager (Kansai Independent League) Minoru Tanaka was arrested by Nara Police today on suspicions of fraud (providing false information on a home loan).

The incident took place in June 2009 and Tanaka conspired with at least two other men: a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi and an unemployed man.  According to the reports, it appears Tanaka took out a home loan for about 38M yen with an unemployed man that falsely said he was a construction worker.  Additionally, the house ultimately purchased was significantly cheaper (around 6M yen) than the actual loan.

Tanaka has admitted to police that he knew that the loan was for more money than necessary but denied knowing that the man he took out the loan with was unemployed.

The Yokohama Bay Stars have their eyes on two foreign pitchers on the Kobe Suns (Kansai Independent League): 22-year-old RHP Edison Barrios and 20-year-old RHP Jose Campos.

Their stats through 6/9:

And their career minor league stats from the US:

Edison Barrios

Jose Campos

Mac Suzuki tossed his first complete game of the season today against the Seoul Haechi.  Suzuki went 9 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits for his second victory of the year.  11 people were apparently at the game (according to the official Kansai Independent League site).

Mac Suzuki, pitcher / manager of the Kobe Suns (KANDOK), made his second start of the season today and recorded his first victory of the year.  Suzuki tossed 7 shutout inning against the Kishu Rangers while allowing just 2 hits for the win.  According to the Kansai Independent League (KANDOK) site, just 12 people were in the stands for the game.

Eri Yoshida will be joining the Hyogo Blue Sandars as a practice player (an official announcement was made by the club today).  Yoshi also mentions on her blog that she's hoping to do what she can to help Hyogo out, while at the same, polishing her skill set.

Mac Suzuki made his managerial debut with the Kobe Suns today and lost the Kansai Independent League (KANDOK) Spring Cup opener to the Soul Haechi, 5-2.

The Osaka Hawks Dream also beat the Kishu Rangers, 10-7.

The KANDOK regular season (first half) begins on 5/2.

The media learned yesterday that there's a good chance Eri Yoshida will be making a return to Japanese baseball this year.  While it seems she may have had opportunities to pitch in the US, she decided to temporarily put off her pursuit to pitch overseas and continue with her development in Japan.  She's currently said to be in talks with the Hyogo Blue Sandars of the Kansai Independent League.

According to an unnamed source, Yoshida is still interested in pitching in the US, but wants to get a little more seasoning in Japan before her next attempt.