Eastern League (Japanese baseball) Eastern League (Japanese baseball) The is one of the two minor leagues ("ni-gun") of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Teams in the Eastern League generally play an 80-game schedule every year. In 1954 the six teams of NPB's Central League agreed to form their own minor league — the Shin Nippon League (or "New Japan League") — as a complement to the already extant Kansai Farm League, which had begun play in 1952. The minor league affiliates of the Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers moved over from
Akira Yoshida Akira Yoshida Educated at the Keiko Gakuen Junior High School, he served as captain of his college's rugby team during his high school days, finishing second at the 69th All-Japan High School Rugby Football Championship. Then, Yoshida attended Kyoto Sangyo University regularly since the first year. He was also the captain at the university's rugby team in 1993. In 1994, he joined Kobe Steel, as regular centre since his first year in the club, contributing to achieve the seventh consecutive victories in the All-Japan Rugby Company Championship and in the Japanese Championship for Kobe Steel. Yoshida also contributed to the