TOKYO: After months of denial and an inexplicably huge surge in home runs, Japan’s baseball chiefs have admitted they secretly switched the design of the ball to make the game more exciting.
Players and fans had repeatedly quizzed Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) bosses after seeing a 40 percent rise in the number of balls that were slugged out of the park so far this season.
In April NPB said the specifications of their ball each of which bears the signature of its commissioner Ryozo Kato “have not been changed”, a statement that was repeated several times since.
But NPB came clean, saying they had asked manufacturer Mizuno to “adjust” the ball to give it greater bounce off the bat and demanded the company keep quiet about the switch.
“Our understanding was that it would be a matter of fine-tuning,” NPB secretary general Kunio Shimoda said.
“We thought it would cause confusion if we let it be known.”
Commissioner Kato a former Japanese ambassador to Washington originally ordered a change in the make-up of the ball back in 2011, to bring it into line with the model used in the US.
The cork core of the ball was wrapped with a low resilience rubber and its seams were widened.
The organisation also made Mizuno the sole ball supplier.
AFP
