Baseball-Japan league's compromise cuts little ice

Japan's Central League, one half of the quake-hit country's professional baseball leagues, has agreed to move the start of its season back to March 29 in the face of opposition from players and concerns about electricity usage.

However, the CL's 'compromise' of pushing back the original start date by just four days is likely to further antagonise the players' union.

The union had expressed annoyance at the Central League's decision to go ahead with the start of the season as scheduled on March 25 while the country was struggling to deal with the crisis triggered by the deadly March 11 earthquake.

The education ministry, which governs sport, also sent a request to Nippon Professional Baseball asking that no night games be played given the shortage of electricity in Japan after the earthquake.

Tokyo and much of the country are experiencing power blackouts following the quake and tsunami while the country attempts to restore its electricity grid.

The Pacific League, which includes a team based in the quake affected city of Sendai, had already agreed to move its season start back to April 12.

"We had the option to postpone the start to mid-April like the Pacific League but to move things forward, we couldn't push it back by that many days," Norihito Nishiwaki of the Chunichi Dragons told Japanese media.

"Our latest decision is a result of careful consideration."

The compromise, announced late on Saturday, cut little ice with the players, however.

"I wasn't expecting this March 29 decision because we were calling for the same opening day for both leagues," Takahiro Arai, the head of the players' union, said.

"There has been strong opposition from players. I don't know if we can come up with our next step tomorrow, but we have to meet again to discuss the CL's ruling."

(For the sports blog Left Field go to: http://blogs.reuters.com/sport))

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