Baseball: Earthquake charity match raises 100 million yen
by Mainichi Japan
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- March's charity game between Japan and Taiwan raised 100 million yen toward disaster relief in Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, Nippon Professional Baseball announced Tuesday.
Most of the money will go to organizations helping children who suffered in the March 11, 2011, disaster. Over 12 million yen was raised through the auction of signed uniforms that were worn in Japan's 9-2 victory.
The hottest property in the auction was the uniform of DeNA BayStars infielder Naoto Watanabe, who spent most of his career with the Sendai-based Rakuten Eagles. His uniform sold for 1.85 million yen. Eagles ace Masahiro Tanaka's shirt was next at 1.33 million yen, while the uniform of Nippon Ham Fighters idol Yuki Saito surpassed 1.03 million yen.
