Toyota Verblitz’s All Blacks greats Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett will throw the ceremonial first baseball pitch at Nagoya-based Chunichi Dragons’ home game on Wednesday 17 April.
The 2007 Japan Series winners play in Nippon Professional Baseball’s Central League and the new season opens in Japan on Friday.
The Dragons’ home stadium, the Valentin Dome, is located eight kilometres from Toyota’s main venue, the Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium.
Baseball has a longstanding ritual of a celebrity guest throwing the ball in a ceremonial first pitch to mark the end of pre-game festivities and the start of the game.
Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett will be on hand for the Dragons’ home game against Tokyo Yakult Swallows and will be hoping to produce a high-quality delivery in front of what is expected to be a capacity crowd of 36,000 fans.
The Dragons boast close to 1,000,000 followers on X (978.7K) and the cross-over promotion is a great showcase for Toyota Verblitz and the club’s 2015 Rugby World Cup winners.
Smith said: “I'm a big Chunichi Dragons fan. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the first pitch ceremony. I'll enjoy it”
Barrett commented: “Thank you for the opportunity to pitch the first pitch with Aaron. I will pitch as hard as I can.”
Ben Herring’s underachievers sit eighth in the table and are all but out of the running for the play-offs.
Toyota, who also has Steve Hansen as their Director of Rugby, host winless Kintetsu Liners on 6 April before travelling to Nagasaki a week later to face the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sagamihara Dynaboars in two must-win games.
Then, three days after star duo Smith and Barrett grace the baseball field at Vantelin Dome, Toyota host Robbie Dean’s undefeated Saitama Wild Knights in Aichi on 20 April.
Picture courtesy of Toyota Verblitz