Rakuten Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi
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Rakuten Mobile Saikyo Park Miyagi (Rakuten Mobairu Saikyō Pāku Miyagi), also named Miyagi Baseball Stadium, is a baseball stadium in Miyaginohara Sports Park in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The 30,508-seat park is owned by the prefecture and operated by Rakuten, which has used it as the home field for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) since 2005. Its symmetrical playing surface is the only all natural grass field in the Pacific League (PL). An amusement park, Smile Glico Park, is integrated into the stadium's left field seating and features a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round. Miyagi Stadium is the third-oldest NPB stadium and the oldest in the PL. It was built in 1950 to host amateur baseball and countryside NPB games. Lights were added in 1973 for night games and to attract more professional games. The Lotte Orions began using it as a semi-home that same year and played five seasons there until 1977. In 1974, the Orions brought the stadium its first postseason games, however Japan Series games were not held in the stadium due to its relatively low seating capacity. Following Lotte's departure, the park again hosted yearly NPB countryside games, amateur games, and the first of four All-Star games was held there in 1992. After the 2004 NPB realignment, Rakuten created a new NPB team to be based in Sendai and renovated Miyagi Stadium in
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.