SAPPORO — One day before the Pacific League title and a place in the Japan Series will be on the line, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and Chiba Lotte Marines were a relaxed bunch.
Fighters manager Trey Hillman took the mound and threw some batting practice balls to a friend, the team played pingpong and Marines manager Bobby Valentine hit ground balls to assistant coach Frank Ramppen before taking aim at the Climax Series scheduling system on Wednesday at Sapporo Dome.
"Same as we always do," Hillman said about how the team would conduct its practice. "We need to lock in to what we're doing as far as regular batting practice. More important than anything else is to keep the atmosphere where it's been at all year long and the way it's been for the last three or four years here."