Kind of a strange atmosphere in Japan's yakyu world this week with the World Baseball Classic attracting a lot of attention, as it should but, at the same time, the 12 Central and Pacific League teams have concluded their spring training camps and are into the exhibition season, preparing for Opening Day.

For the PL, that's less than three weeks from now, on Saturday, March 25. Central Leaguers will play their 2006 season lid-lifters on Friday, March 31.

Just before the teams broke camp, I had a chance to visit a couple of them in Miyazaki Prefecture and pick up some scuttlebutt from the Hiroshima Carp and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.