The 2020 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 71st season of professional
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
in
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
since
Nippon Professional Baseball
is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball".
The roots of the league ...
(NPB) was reorganized in
1950
Events January
* January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
* January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...
. There were 12 NPB teams, split evenly between the
Central League
The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...
and
Pacific League
The , or , or the , due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the a ...
.
Season schedule
The 2020 season was originally scheduled to begin on 20 March, with a break from 21 July to 13 August, for the
2020 Tokyo Olympics. On 26 February 2020, the league announced that its remaining spring training games would be held without fans in attendance, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. With health related precautions in place, the media was allowed into some ballparks. Following another league meeting on 9 March, commissioner
Atsushi Saito stated that the 2020 season would be postponed until April. Saito also said that the league aimed to retain a full regular season schedule of 143 games. This announcement marked the first time since
2011
The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
that a Nippon Professional Baseball season was delayed.
On 18 April, the league announced that it would remain delayed indefinitely through the entirety of May, with the 18-game interleague schedule removed to accommodate a 125-game schedule. The delay of the 2020 Olympics meant that the three-week Olympic break would no longer be needed. Therefore, it was removed from the schedule. Before the league began play, the 2020 season was shortened to 120 games, and scheduled to end on 7 November.
As a result of the condensed schedule, it was also announced that the first stage of the Pacific League
Climax Series would not be played, with the top two teams from the regular season competing in a best-of-5 final stage which the regular season winner enters with a one-game advantage. The Central League would do away with its Climax Series entirely, with its regular season winner advancing directly to the 2020
Japan Series
The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series between the winning cl ...
.
With the lifting of states of emergency over major Japanese cities, NPB announced that it would begin its regular season on 19 June
behind closed doors. "Warm-up" games began 26 May. All twelve NPB teams played on as scheduled on 19 June.
On 10 July NPB began allowing a limited number of fans to attend games, with plans to further ease restrictions in the near future. On 19 September, attendance was expanded to a maximum of 20,000 fans per game, or 50% of stadium capacity.
Regular season standings
Climax Series
Pacific League
Japan Series
League leaders
Central League
Pacific League
Awards
Regular season
See also
*
2020 in baseball
*
2020 Major League Baseball season
*
2020 KBO League season
*
2020 Chinese Professional Baseball League season
*
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on baseball
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to baseball around the world, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports, mirroring its impact across all sports. Leagues around the world experienced delayed starts, cancelled seasons, limited or no f ...
Notes
:1.The 2020 Central League Climax Series was cancelled. As a result, the regular season champion Yomiuri Giants advanced directly to the Japan Series.
References
{{Nippon Professional Baseball Seasons
Nippon Professional Baseball season
Nippon Professional Baseball season
Nippon Professional Baseball, 2020