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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese baseball managed to do what American baseball has not — play ball.

After a three-month delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the world's second-most famous baseball competition opened a season Friday that will be shortened from its regular 143 games to 120. That, of course, is twice as many as MLB figures to play — if it plays at all.

The regular season had been scheduled to start March 20. It is slated to end on Nov. 7, followed by postseason play.

It wasn't a perfect start, but all 12 league teams played. Two of the games were in open-air stadiums in Tokyo and Yokohama. They started about 30 minutes late with rain threatening.

The other four were in domed facilities in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Saitama prefecture northwest of Tokyo.

“I’m very happy, very excited about today’s game,” said Alex Ramírez, the manager of the Central League's Yokohama BayStars. “Just to think about all the time we’ve had to wait, and stuff like that. It’s just the best feeling.”

All games in Japan will be played without fans until at least July. The league has also revised the schedule to limit travel. There will be periodic testing and quarantines and, according to league guidelines, players will be banned from spitting.

Teams can dress 26 players and choose from 31 players on an active roster. Non-baseball staff will wear masks.

Former Baltimore star Adam Jones went 0 for 3 in his debut for the Orix Buffaloes, a 9-1 loss to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Pacific League.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland pitcher Zach Neal threw one-hit ball for six innings to lead the Seibu Lions over the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the Pacific League. Neal became Seibu's first foreign opening-day starter since Taiwan’s Kuo Tai-yuan in...

MIAMI (AP) — The Clevelander nightclub at Marlins Park didn't make the team this year.

The club beyond the left field wall at field level has closed. It included a swimming pool, dancers and DJs, and had been a staple at the ballpark since it opened in 2012.

The space will still be accessible to fans with different seating and without the pool, but the bar remains.

“We are excited about the future use and potential of the field-level space as a fan destination within Marlins Park for a wide variety of audiences,” Marlins chief revenue officer Adam Jones said in a statement Thursday.

Marlins Park has undergone a gradual makeover since Derek Jeter's group bought the team in late 2017. Before the 2019 season, Jeter removed the kitschy home run sculpture from the outfield, and it has a new home in a plaza outside the ballpark.

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