Have you been to an exhibition game yet this year at Jingu Stadium?

Under the theme "New Jingu, New Swallows," the home park of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows has undergone an interior face-lift, and the old yard looks pretty darn good.

Most noticeable is the new artificial turf, a nice dark green in contrast to other parks where the fake grass is so light yellow-green, you can hardly see the ball on a bright sunny day as it rolls into the outfield for a base hit.

There is also dirt-colored turf around the infield, giving it the major league stadium look.

They have moved back the fences 10 meters, at least in the corners, where the right- and left-field foul poles are now 101 meters (331 feet) from home plate.

They used to be 91 meters (298 feet) away, and that applause you hear is from the Japanese baseball pitchers association.

The power alleys and straightaway center are the same, however; it's still 120 meters (394 feet) to the back screen.

The scoreboard at Jingu now has a video display that can be extended to fill the entire area of the board. Looks nice during the day, and I'll bet it is even prettier at night.

We'll find out when the Swallows open the 2008 regular season against the Yomiuri Giants on the evening of March 28.

Yakult will also host the Kyojin on March 29 at 3 p.m. and March 30 at 1:30 p.m.

We'll see the new Jingu, but will we see the new Swallows?

Or the same bunch that finished last in the 2007 Central League pennant race?

* * * * *

Speaking of Jingu Stadium, it was there on March 13, prior to the Swallows exhibition game against Fukuoka SoftBank, where Hawks pitcher Rick Guttormson got to meet Japan's only 400-game-winning pitcher, Masaichi Kaneda.

The legendary left-hander, former star for the Yomiuri Giants and Kokutetsu Swallows before they became the Yakult Atoms and eventually the Yakult Swallows, told Guttormson he's 75 years old but still gets around pretty well. He actually will turn 75 on Aug. 1 this year.

"Can you still pitch?" asked the 31-year-old American.

"Sure, I can still perform a shikyushiki," answered Kaneda, who will do just that — throw the ceremonial first pitch — to open a Giants-Swallows game at Tokyo Dome on April 11.

Kaneda worked for Kokutetsu when the former Japan National Railways (JNR), despite being government-run, was allowed to own a team.

He was with them from 1950 through 1964 and pitched for Yomiuri from 1965-69. He won 400, lost 298 and had a lifetime ERA of 2.34, supposedly using only two pitches: a blazing fastball and a drop curve.

Six times during his career, Kaneda won and lost 20 or more games in the same season. His most victorious year was 1958, when he went 31-14.

He told an impressed Guttormson he struck out 4,500 batters, but the record shows he fanned only 4,490 (tsk!).

The old-timer also said he had seen Guttormson's no-hitter (in 2006 when Guttormson himself was with the Swallows), something Kaneda knows well. He tossed a no-hitter in 1951 and hurled a perfect game in 1957.

After retirement, Kaneda stepped into a new role as the fiery manager of the Lotte Orions in the 1970s and won the Japan Series in 1974 with players such as George Altman and Jim Lefebvre.

He later managed the Lee Brothers, Leron and Leon, and the great pitcher Choji Murata and All-Star third baseman Michiyo "Mr. Lotte" Arito, both members of the Meikyukai (Golden Players Club) for batters who reach 2,000 career hits and pitchers who win 200 games.

Kaneda is one of the elders of the GPC and, with 400 victories, he could have joined the group twice.

* * * * *

Finally this week, I believe we should all congratulate Nippon Professional Baseball acting commissioner Yasuchika Negoro, Jeremy Powell, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Orix Buffaloes on the peaceful resolution of the "double contract" debacle.

The decision by Negoro to scrub the previous decision by the Pacific League is brilliant.

Pacific League president Tadao Koike had ruled both clubs had a valid contract with the pitcher, but he belonged to Softbank and would be suspended for three months.

Negoro then listened to the arguments of all involved and declared both contracts were null and void, sending the case back to square one and effectively sending Powell to the Hawks for whom he can pitch as soon as he's ready.

The sequence of events reminds me of a case where an umpire makes what he thinks is the correct call on a questionable play. Then another ump says he saw it differently and, after all four members of the crew confer, they change the original call.

As a radio or TV play-by-play announcer would say, "The important thing is they got it right."

That's what happened here. Negoro got it right.

The Buffaloes are to be commended as well for dropping their opposition to the verdict and scrapping their demand that Powell be suspended for one year.

As I wrote in an earlier column, it is never good to have a guy on your team who does not want to play for you, because his heart is not in it.

Orix wisely let go of the insistence that Powell is its player. The Buffaloes also went out and got another foreign pitcher, Eric Junge.

That's the way to do it; get on with the game and forget this other stuff.

Hey, wouldn't it be something if we end up seeing Powell pitch for the Hawks against the Buffaloes in the 2008 Pacific League Climax Series in October?

It could happen.

* * * * *

Contact Wayne Graczyk at: [email protected]