2003 Schedule

Yes, the schedules were released in the press over the past two days.

Available in English? Not yet to my knowledge.

I'm afraid that entering next year's schedule (which didn't include starting times) has a lower priority than entering this season's stats - of which I still don't have a complete set.

You all may have noticed that I'd fallen quite a bit behind in answering questions lately. It seems that there are more discussions going on now than during the season! (I think I caught up last night - except for a number of two week old mail messages.) Sometimes, other duties take priority. Please keep in mind that this is an all volunteer site, meaning that things get done when I have time to get to them. And data entry/translation takes a lot of time.

Dear Commish:

First of all, here's a Godzilla story [NY Post] from this morning that might be of interest.

I can scarecely imagine the work that must go into maintaining this site, so I am disinclined to ask for a personal favor. But...

I'm strongly considering taking the tour next September described at the site www.japanball.com (which I originally found in a link from this site, I think). Which is why I'm so interested in next year's schedule. So I was wondering if maybe you'd be so kind as to feed me just the part of the schedule from Friday, September 5 through Wednesday, September 10, 2003. Even if they don't have game times up yet, at least I'd know what I have a chance of seeing. It would give me motivation to continue my savings plan (it's not a small investment, as you probably well know).

And if our paths should cross in Yokohama, the beer's on me.

Thanks so much,
Peter Gallagher
gallagher at hmai dot org

Actually, that's a much easier request than the whole schedule.

Looking at the Japan Tour page, I'm a big confused by the 5th being at Jingu. Yakult is playing Chunichi that day with the Dragons listed as the home team (at Nagoya Dome). Perhaps you'll just tour Jingu, or maybe see a collage game? Has anyone taken the tour?

The tour goes down the tracks to Tokyo Dome on the 6th where the Giants continue hosting the Carp.

The 7th, the tour heads to Saitama's "Seibu Field." Is that Seibu Dome? Nonetheless, it looks like Seibu is in Fukuoka, so I guess it's to see something other than a game.

Either I've misread the schedule or they have, but it looks to me like the games on the 9th and 10th are also while the home team is away. So rather than continue with the tour schedule, here's what I think is the schedule for those dates:

Dates	Matchup	Stadium
9/5-7 6-7 8-9 8-10 9-10 9-11	Hiroshima - Giants Yakult - Chunichi Yokohama - Hanshin Nippon Ham - Lotte Kintetsu - Orix Seibu - Daiei Kintetsu - Daiei Lotte - Seibu Nippon Ham - Orix Giants - Yokohama Hanshin - Yakult Chunichi - Hiroshima	Tokyo Dome Nagoya Dome Koshien Chiba Marine Osaka Dome Fukuoka Dome Fukuoka Dome Seibu Dome Green Stadium Yokohama Jingu Hiroshima

Note, the stadiums aren't listed in my source (Nikkan Sports), so I can's say for sure that this is where the games are. But the order of the matchups suggest that these are the home teams.

I'm afraid that I may be causing more confusion than helping. I'd certainly recommend contacting the organizers to find out where they got their schedule from. I'd appriciate a followup to their reply, too.

I went ahead and contacted them, and the reply was that there was supposed to be a disclaimer stating "schedule subject to change when the 2003 schedules have been released." That explains the confusion.

That's just what I was looking for. I knew the schedule on the tour site was a sample, sorry I neglected to mention it. Many thanks.

2003 Central League schedule posted here.

2003 Pacific League schedule posted here.