Get your free tickets for Yankees Day Sept. 16.

The Pacific League Nippon Ham Fighters will hold their annual AIWA Yankees Day promotion on Sunday, Sept. 16, at the Tokyo Dome and, as usual, the ball club is inviting 3,000 foreign fans as guests to this fun international event. Yankees Day is held so the Fighters can recognize their working agreement with the defending World Series Champion New York Yankees, with whom Nippon Ham has been partners for 27 years. Also honored will be foreign players and you, the foreign fans.

This year's visiting team is the Chiba Lotte Marines, and game time is 1:30 p.m. AIWA Co. Ltd. is the title sponsor again, and other American companies will join as sub-sponsors. All will provide prizes for fans in a lottery draw, and there will be an MVP prize for the outstanding player in the day's game. Public address announcements throughout the day will be made in English as well as Japanese, and a message from a Yankees official will be read prior to the game. A pre-game ceremony will feature the presentation of sponsors' gifts to player representatives of both teams, floral bouquets given by American children to managers Yoshinori Oshima of the Fighters and Koji Yamamoto of Chiba Lotte and foreign players of the two clubs.

The United States Air Force Band of the Pacific-Asia from Yokota Air Base is expected to perform the American and Japanese national anthems, and an official from AIWA will deliver the ceremonial "shikyushiki" opening pitch to Chiba's leadoff batter. Fans will be invited to join in singing "YMCA" during a break in the action following the fifth inning, and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch.

Before telling you how to get your free tickets to join the crowd, let me run down some information and answers to frequently asked questions about Yankees Day.

The Yankees will not be at Tokyo Dome. They are busy, in the thick of their own American League East Division pennant race and will be playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla., that day. You will see a regular season Pacific League game between the Fighters and Marines. You may bring your own food and drink, but cans and bottles are not allowed inside the Tokyo Dome. There is a wide variety of Japanese and western foods and drinks on sale at the stadium, including Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, curry rice, yakisoba, bento box lunches, beer, wine, soft drinks, coffee and ice cream.

There is no smoking allowed in the seating area at the Tokyo Dome. Smoking is allowed only in designated areas.

Unused tickets may not be sold under any circumstances. The tickets we are getting are stamped "complimentary", and anyone caught selling or attempting to sell tickets may be prosecuted by law.

It will add to the festive and international atmosphere if you wear the cap, T-shirt or jersey of your favorite major league or Japanese team, even if it isn't the Yankees or Fighters.

The seats are together in blocks located in the lower stands between first base and right field or third base and left field.

Tokyo Dome is in Bunkyo Ward in the center of Tokyo, accessible from JR Suidobashi Station on the Sobu Line, or through Suidobashi Station on the Municipal (Toei) Subway's Mita Line, or Korakuen Station on the Eidan Subway's Marunouchi or Namboku Lines. There is no parking for passenger cars at Tokyo Dome, though you might find paid parking available at the Tokyo Dome Hotel in front of the stadium.

You may bring Japanese friends or family members in your group.

The Fighters have once again asked me to coordinate the event and distribute the 3,000 free tickets to the foreign community. If you would like to join us on Yankees Day, you can get your tickets by following these easy-to-understand directions. Please read carefully.

Send a stamped (80 yen), standard-size, self-addressed Japanese envelope directly to me with your request of up to four tickets. Be sure your address is complete and correct, including the seven-digit postal zip code, and be sure there is a stamp on the envelope. Do not use an airmail envelope. Indicate whether you want one, two, three or four tickets. It is not necessary to send your application by special delivery (sokutatsu); you will only be wasting postage money. Send your request and envelope to: Wayne Graczyk, 1-12-18 Kichijoji Higashi-cho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo-to 180-0002.

If you tell a friend about this, do not forget the part about the stamped, self-addressed envelope. If they send me a postcard request, I cannot send them tickets. Better to send them a copy of this column. I expect to fill about 400 individual orders, so please make it easy for me.

Thanks.

This is an excellent opportunity, especially for those who have never seen a Japanese pro-baseball game in person or have never been to the Tokyo Dome. I look forward to receiving your mail and to seeing you on Yankees Day at Tokyo Dome on Sept. 16. Be sure to get there early to catch batting practice and the opening ceremony. That way you'll be one of the 5,000 fans to receive the lucky card-numbers for the prize draw. If you should arrive real early, check out the Pro Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum next to Gate 21 at the Tokyo Dome.

If you'd like to eat lunch prior to entering the stadium, try the Baseball Cafe or Vicky's Sports Grill, which are both inside the Tokyo Dome complex, or the Sizzler steak house in the Tokyo Dome Hotel. See you there!