Sendai-based Japanese professional baseball team Rakuten Golden Eagles players exchange high-fives after defeating the Lotte Marines in the opening game of the season in Chiba, suburban Tokyo on April 12, 2011. Baseball-crazy Japan welcomed the start of a new season, more than two weeks behind schedule, after the country's biggest post-war natural disaster threw the sport into disarray. JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images
CHIBA, Japan (AP) — Backdropped by the deadly earthquake and tsunami and worsening radiation leak, the Japan Pro Baseball season has opened to relief, empathy and cheers with the Rakuten Eagles beating the defending champion Chiba Lotte Marines 6-4.
The Eagles’ home of Sendai has been one of the hardest hit by last month’s earthquake and tsunami, and they’re unable to use their own stadium until April 29.
Local TV showed people in shelters watching Tuesday’s game, before which there was a moment of silence, and each fan in the Chiba cheering section held up signs of support for the disaster
areas which said, “Stay Strong Japan.”
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
