Tsuneo Watanabe, the influential owner of the Yomiuri Giants, on Wednesday pointed to a need to draw up a regular-season schedule for the 2002 season in consideration of the fixtures for the soccer World Cup finals. Watanabe said one of his personal ideas is to create some "no baseball days" on the calendar to allow sports fans' interest to converge on the World Cup, particularly on the match days for Japan.
Commenting on Watanabe's remarks, an official at the Japanese baseball commissioner's office did not rule out making an irregular calendar for the 2002 season. "Baseball and soccer are the two biggest professional sports in Japan. It would be possible for us to consider proper scheduling for the co-existence of both," the official said.
Next year's World Cup, co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, will kick off in Seoul on May 31 and the final will be played in Yokohama on June 30.