The Japanese Men’s Softball League announced a 17-team tournament in November, as an alternative to the cancelled 2020 season. The single-elimination competition will be held on 13, 14 and 15 November and will be live-streamed for free for fans around the world.
In all, 17 squads will play in the event, opening with eight knockout games on 13 November - the lucky 17th team get a free pass into the quarter-finals. The second day of competition will see the quarter-finals finals and semi-finals played, with the final slated for 15 November at noon, local time.
Back in August, the Japanese Softball Association (JSA) announced the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with an alternative competition to be announced later. Now JSA has unveiled this three-day competition to coincide with the original 2020 season-ending weekend in Okayama City.
Last year, the Hirabayashi Metal club was crowned league champs, after a 7-0 win over Denso in the final match.
In January 2020, Japan reached the top of the WBSC Men’s Softball World Rankings for the first time in history, and then on 1 March, the U-18 national team went undefeated to win the WBSC World Cup in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
