Champ Games?

The Nihon Series (equivalent to the "World Series" of MLB) is held toward the end of October. There is no date set, yet. October 2nd through about the 15th is for makeup games. And since it rains a lot in October, there are often makeup games for the makeup games. But I regress.

While the races seem to be decided, with the Giants having a 6.5 games lead over Yakult in the Central League and Seibu running away with it, 13 games over Kintetsu in the Pacific League.

Yakult is riding a 10 game winning streak, which brought them back from something like 11.5 out. They also still "control their destiny" as if (however unlikely) they win all of their remaining games, they can take the pennant. Thus, the Giants don't have a visible magic number. Seibu's is lit up at 21 with 32 games remaining.

As for tickets, they go on sale after the races have been decided. The schedule itself is decided about 1 to 2 weeks before, with contengencies for three teams if necessary. To get tickets, you have to camp out for about a week before tickets go on sale. Or buy from the dafuya (scalpers). "Discount ticket shops" also often have them for extreamly inflated prices the day after they go on sale.

Gambare!

> Don't
> they have those post-season (or playoffs, whatever
> you call it) games as the MLB?

One of the joys of Japanese baseball is that they abjure the pseudo-playoff system which has ruined the US game. (Real playoffs occur only when two teams tie at the top. Someone told me MLB purposely avoids using the term to ward off legal problems. That says it all...)

The new J-League, unlike our MLS, also rejected this system, and chose instead to follow European soccer's traditional model. (They may even have relegation-and-promotion, something which would really shake up baseball if either country had the wa to institute it.}

I understand the Pacific League, the one which succumbed to the DH fad, once used the old bush-leagues' "split-season" formula for a few years, then gave it up. Can someone elaborate on this?