The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles donated 1,000 seats on Monday from their home stadium to a local ballpark in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan, an area hit by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Eagles president Yozo Tachibana presented the seats from Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi to Jin Sato, mayor of the coastal town of Minamisanriku, in a ceremony marking the eighth anniversary of the magnitude 9.0 quake and ensuing tsunami.
"I feel a great weight to have the ceremony on this day," Tachibana said. "I am grateful to be able to make this donation."
The seats will be installed at a baseball stadium in Minamisanriku's "Heisei Forest" multi-purpose facility.
"It is an unforgettable day for our town. This is great news today, on this day," Sato said. "This environment we've been given will allow many people to come to the baseball stadium."
Rakuten formalized a partnership with Minamisanriku in order to continue supporting the town. The Eagles' farm team has played at the Heisei Forest stadium, and it is also scheduled to play the Yomiuri Giants' farm team there in August.