Perhaps Nippon Professional Baseball has come up with something that will finally convince the Japanese Professional Baseball Players Association to reverse course and compete in the next World Baseball Classic.
It was reported late Monday night that, after checking with WBC organizers on a number of matters, NPB revealed it owns certain rights to sponsorship revenues stemming from Samurai Japan's participation in the event.
"We were able to reconfirm that Japan could own these rights," Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters representative Toshimasa Shimada was quoted as saying by Kyodo News.