Japan Further Delays Baseball Season in Latest Bad Sign for MLB Action

For every bit of hope that South Korea's KBO has given to the average American baseball fan, Japan's continued delays have further deflated them.

Opening Day was once set for March 20 in Japan's NPB, before its inevitable delay to late April. Now, with cases worsening in the country (though far below the level of current United States numbers), officials have postponed the season's Opening Day indefinitely, at least further into May.

Obviously, any delay in global sports is disheartening for those of us on U.S. soil who'd love the escape of live action right about now, but the numbers involved in this case particularly hit home.

Japan has now pushed their scheduled Opening Day back two months, citing a worsening situation that involves 2,300+ cases and 57 deaths in their country. America is experiencing exponential growth, as well as over 200,000 scattered cases at the time of this writing. It's necessary to exercise caution no matter the count, which only further clouds our future.

The one nugget tucked into the article that should provide any form of hope is Japan's acknowledgment that they may have to "consider" empty stadiums. At this point, that standard should be beyond simply a consideration for MLB, and may be their only hope of playing a robust enough schedule to seem even semi-normal.