Japan baseball players on strike for first time

TOKYO – Japanese baseball players elected to stage the first strike in the history of the sport in Japan on Friday after extended negotiations with team officials failed to reach an agreement.

Japan’s professional players had threatened to strike this weekend unless a one-year freeze was placed on the merger of the Pacific League’s Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave.

The strike will wipe out all games this weekend and possibly all weekend games between now and the end of the season. Weekday games will be played as scheduled.

Negotiations will resume next week in an attempt to salvage the remaining weekend games.

Friday’s negotiating session was extended four hours past the deadline, but an agreement was not reached.