Due to the novel coronavirus, Japanese baseball needs to refrain from the colorful sight. (Image via The Saturday Evening Post)

Baseball clubs in Japan ban balloons over the fear of coronavirus

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Sports & Culture
Baseball
Feb 09, 2020
2941
Japan is going all-out to contain the novel coronavirus’ outbreak from spreading even further. Japanese baseball clubs are banning their fans temporarily from releasing balloons into the air.

Two of the major Japanese baseball clubs, the Hanshin Tigers and DeNa Baystars, are following the restriction. The Tigers’ fans often release balloons of different shapes and sizes when their team limbers up to bat in the seventh inning. However, due to the temporary ban, the tradition has to stop.

Apparently, the tradition also spread to the 12 professional baseball clubs, making the sport one of the most colorful sights in the Japanese sport.

As one of the oldest professional clubs, the Tigers pioneered the move by posting on its website telling its fans to refrain from releasing jet balloons, ahead of its warm-up games in Okinawa and Kochi Prefectures.

DeNa Baystars, whose fans followed the same tradition as Tigers’, started following the restriction on Saturday. That means the balloon ban will stay for seven games at their spring training base in Ginowan, Okinawa.

This is not the first time for the Japanese baseball clubs to impose such restrictions. A similar restriction was also imposed in 2009 due to the outbreak of swine flu.

Source: https://bit.ly/2un2xxH

Sports , Baseball , Fans , Asia , Japan , Medical , Health , Disease , Pulmonary , Outbreak , Pneumonia , Coronavirus