Japanese Pitchers Donate $124,000 To Rebuild Ballpark Damaged In Earthquake

Japanese Pacific League baseball club SoftBank Hawks pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tadashi Settsu will donate a combined 13M yen ($124,000) "to help restore Kumamoto's Fujisakidai Stadium," according to KYODO. The "picturesque hilltop ballpark," which from July 10 will be the main venue of the Kumamoto tournament for the national summer high school championships, "suffered damage in the series of earthquakes that rocked the prefecture in April." Matsuzaka: "Fujisaki Stadium is the symbol of high school baseball in Kumamoto. I want to do what I can so that it is back to normal at the earliest possible date." Settsu said that the ballpark "holds special meaning for him." He said, "It's the stadium where I earned my first win as a starter (in 2011)" (KYODO, 6/21).