By KENICHIRO HATANAKA/ Staff Writer
November 15, 2022 at 16:34 JST
Es Con Field Hokkaido, the Nippon Ham Fighters’ new home stadium in Kita-Hiroshima, Hokkaido, on Nov. 3 (Kengo Hiyoshi)
The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters will be allowed to use their new stadium for the 2023 season if they later complete renovation work to meet a Japanese baseball standard.
The agreement was reached at a Nov. 14 meeting of Nippon Professional Baseball officials and representatives of all 12 teams.
Construction work is nearly completed for Es Con Field Hokkaido, located in Kita-Hiroshima outside Sapporo. The Fighters’ new home field is scheduled to open in March next year.
But during an NPB meeting on Nov. 7, some attendees pointed out that the stadium fails to meet one standard defined by official Japanese baseball rules: the distance from home plate to the back stop should be 60 feet, or about 18 meters.
The distance at the Fighters’ new stadium is 15 meters.
At the Nov. 14 meeting, Koji Kawamura, president of the Fighters, apologized for failing to sufficiently check with the NPB standards.
He proposed a plan to repair the stadium in the off-seasons of 2023 and 2024 so that the stadium will meet the standard for the 2025 season.
The attendees agreed with the plan.
The Japanese rule is a direct translation of the Major League’s Official Baseball Rules.
But in the MLB version, the “60 feet or more” distance is recommended, not mandatory.
HKS Inc., a U.S. design firm that is building Es Con Field Hokkaido, said the blueprint for the stadium is based on the MLB version of the rules.
However, Atsushi Ihara, NPB secretary-general, said, “You have to separate the case of a building that has violated the rules from discussions about revising the baseball rules.”
In a statement released to the media, Kawamura said: “We have worked to build a stadium that provides a ‘you-are-there’ feeling by using the major leagues as a guide. But there was a problem in the process, such as insufficient checking and consulting about the difference in the American rules and the Japanese rules.”
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