Baseball: Japan’s preseason returns to cheers

Fans welcomed the start of Japanese pro baseball’s preseason exhibition season Thursday with sounds not heard at ballparks here since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, shouting, chanting and cheering.

Although required to remain masked, the crowd of 7,423 were allowed to raise their voices and serenade the Central League’s Yakult Swallows and Yomiuri Giants at Yakult’s spring training site in Okinawa.

Cheering had not been heard in ballparks since the very start of the 2020 preseason. It was not long before fans were banned from preseason games, and they remained away until small numbers ...