Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. (KONAMI) has teamed up with Japanese baseball fans to donate equipment to up-and-coming baseball players through the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Africa.
As part of KONAMI’S Baseball Equipment Reuse project, fans of Nippon Professional Baseball side Saitama Seibu Lions donated more than 300 pieces of equipment when they attended a game in September 2022.
The project aims to introduce baseball to youngsters and to expand the baseball population by raising funds and reducing the costs associated with starting the sport.
Thanks to the generosity of KONAMI and the Lions’ fans, 29 bats, 29 gloves, 313 balls and a catcher mask have been handed to WBSC Africa to allocate to new players.
More than 100 fans were involved in the donation and in return they were presented with unique merchandise, including notebooks and pencils in the design of KONAMI’s flagship games, Power Pros and Professional Baseball Spirits series.
Watch: KONAMI's Equipment Reuse Project Video (in Japanese)
On behalf of President Riccardo Fraccari, WBSC Executive Director Michael Schmidt presented KONAMI’s Executive Officer Tatsuhiko Yamamoto a Certificate of Appreciation in recognition of their contribution during his visit to Tokyo in March. They also discussed the possibility of expanding the reuse project to continue developing and promoting the sport.
The WBSC and KONAMI recently published WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS, the official WBSC video game, in over 60 countries on the PlayStation™ Store and Nintendo eShop.
The video game is the official platform for the Olympic Esports Series 2023 with online qualifiers already underway ahead of the Olympic Esports Finals in Singapore in June.
Click here to apply to play WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS for free.
