Nippon Professional Baseball is looking to get back to a normal 143-game season — after which both the Central and Pacific Leagues will stage their Climax Series — this year even with COVID-19 continuing to hang over society.
NPB confirmed its plans during a meeting with all 12 teams on Wednesday. The league also reached agreements with the clubs on other matters — mostly related to protocols and countermeasures for the virus that were raised during a meeting of the board of directors and team representatives on Tuesday.
The teams will begin their spring camps as scheduled on Feb. 1 in Miyazaki and Okinawa prefectures, though they’ll do so with no fans present.