Planned merger sparks baseball crisis in Japan
eTaiwan, 2004-07-01 / Associated Press
A proposed merger between two Pacific League teams has cast a dark cloud over the future of Japanese professional baseball.
.... the Orix BlueWave and the Kintetsu Buffaloes revealed plans on June 13 to merge the two cash-strapped teams....
One idea being floated in the Japanese media is to scrap the less popular Pacific League altogether and have just one league with eight or ten teams. Under such a proposal, every team would benefit from the enormous popularity of the Central League's Yomiuri Giants. ...
