2008 Nippon Professional Baseball season


The 2008 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 59th season since the NPB was reorganized in. The regular season started on March 20 with the Pacific League opener, and on March 28 with the Central League opener. On March 25 and 26, the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics played 2 regular season Major League Baseball games at Tokyo Dome. During their visit, they also played exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants.

Format

Both League

The Seibu Lions added the prefecture name "Saitama" in front of the team name starting with this season.
As to reduce the interference to teams whose main players would play in the Olympic Games, this year's trade and new foreign players deadlines were pushed to the end of July, instead of the end of June. Also, teams having more than three players selected by National teams were given an extra quota of foreign player limit during the Olympic Games.
The postseason playoff regulations have changed to give more advantages to League Champions, now the second stage series will play for 6 games, while the League Champion will have a one-win advantage.
In late June, the Free Agency regulation was amended after negotiation between the players committee and owners. Players are now eligible for free agency after 8 years of service to a team, players drafted before 2007 are shortened to 7 to 8 years. However, oversea FA right which allow them to play in the Major League Baseball still needs 9 playing years. This amendment is also effective on non-Japanese players. Alex Ramírez, who served 8 playing years in Japan, became a "local player" after the season.

Standings

Central League

Climax Series 1st Stage

Hanshin Tigers vs. Chunichi Dragons

Climax Series 2nd Stage

Yomiuri Giants vs. Chunichi Dragons The Giants have a one-game advantage.

Pacific League

Climax Series 1st Stage

Orix Buffaloes vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

Climax Series 2nd Stage

Saitama Seibu Lions vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters The Lions have a one-game advantage.

Interleague Games

Note: Whenever multiple teams have same number of wins, the team having better standings in last year's interleague games will have advantage, thus Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the interleague title, despite Hanshin Tigers beating the Hawks 3 out of 4 games. A similar rule applies to other teams tied in wins.

Climax Series

Note: All of the games that are played in the first two rounds of the Climax Series are held at the higher seed's home stadium. The team with the higher regular-season standing also advances if the round ends in a tie.

Japan Series

Saitama Seibu Lions vs. Yomiuri Giants