JR East Japan Wins Inter-City National Championship

JR (Japan Railways) East Japan won the 82nd Inter-City National Baseball Championship of Industrial League after 2-1 win over NTT East Japan in 11th inning at Kyocera Dome Osaka on November 1.

It is the first time for JR East Japan to win the tournament, participated by 32 teams from about 350 clubs of the Japan Amateur Baseball Association (JABA), and most of the players who played in the IBAF World Cup in Panama in October came out to join the Championship.

The Mainichi Newspaper in its summary of the 11 day tournament noted that those teams with strong pitchers ranked high and the amateur industrial league needs to put all their efforts toward strengthening hitting. The disruptions of the game schedule owing to the 3/11 Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami are blamed for the weakness in batting which is illustrated by sharp decrease in home runs, only 7, the 2nd smallest after 4 homers since the 17th Championship in 1946.