The 2005 Japan pro baseball schedule was released last week, and one look at the table gives you an idea there will be a whole new ball game next season. Three separate slates were unveiled, one for each of the Central and Pacific Leagues as usual, with Japan's first-ever interleague calendar tacked on.
The interleague "season" begins on May 6 and will extend through June 16. Then there are three open dates the weekend of June 17-19, presumably to make up any rainouts and also to give the teams a chance to switch gears from interleague mode back to the more familiar intraleague matchups.
Because of the interleague portion of the schedule, the Yomiuri Giants annual "home-away-from-home" series in Kyushu and Hokkaido have been moved from mid-May and late-June, respectively. Instead, the Giants will host games against the Yakult Swallows at Fukuoka Dome on April 26-27 and the Chunichi Dragons at Sapporo Dome on July 12-13.