Activity – Baseball Legends Foundation (BLF)

Our actions

Supporting Charitable Activities by the Players and the Teams

Again Ball Project by Kazuki Yoshimi of Chunichi Dragons.

Gathering broken baseballs from the schools and the teams all over Japan, the disabled sew and repair them in Shoyuen, the facility of their employment support. Yoshimi purchases these repaired “again balls” and donate them to the kids’ baseball teams in Japan. The profit from his purchase is allotted to the wage for the disabled, which helps them socially independent. We have planned and operated this activity since 2015.

Iwata Project 21 by Minoru Iwata of Hanshin Tigers

Iwata, who has been suffering from Type 1 diabetes because of virus infection in his high school days, still injects the insulin to himself four times a day, never giving up being a starting pitcher of Tigers. In 2011, he stood up for those suffering from the same disease and launched “Iwata Project 21” for awareness. We offer him with media support such as producing the publication to introduce his baseball history with his disease.

Lions Cup Wheelchair Softball Event

Saitama Seibu Lions has been holding “Lions Cup”, the wheelchair softball event every September since 2015. We have been dispatching the volunteer staffs to this event, and we started supporting as a sponsor in 2017.

Lions Calorie Off-set Program 2015

In 15 official games of 2015 season, the calories the players consume in the game (1 kilo-calorie as 1 yen) and those the spectators consume in cheering (200 kilo-calories as 1 yen) were converted to the money, and donated 650,425 yen to Leyte Island in the Philippines where many people were impacted by huge typhoon. We organized and supported this action

Our Own Actions Related to Baseball

Annual Charity Auction by professional baseball players.

Former/active players offer the used and autographed items for our charity auction. We organize this auction once a year during the off-season.

Achievement in 2017

《Players》
Shogo Akiyama, Alex Ramirez, Ryota Arai, Takuro Ishii, Akinori Iwamura, Koji Uehara, Seiichi Uchikawa, Daichi Ohsera, Masayuki Kakefu, Tomoaki Kanemoto, Ryosuke Kikuchi, Takumi Kuriyama, Taketoshi Goto, Kazumi Saito, Hirokazu Sawamura, Seiya Suzuki, Ginjiro Sumitani, Kazunari Tsuruoka, Yuhei Nakamura, Toshihisa Nishi, Fumiya Nishiguchi, Shinjiro Hiyama, Kenta Maeda, Daisuke Miura, Yuki Yanagita, Masataka Yoshida, Tsuyoshi Wada

《Balance》
●All amount of winning bid: 1,778,599 yen
●Expenses: System fee for Yahoo! 124,502 yen/deputizing fee 88,000 yen/others177,860 yen
●Profit: 1,388,237 yen

《Use of profit》
●Donation for Kumamoto Prefecture (assistance of reconstruction after the earthquake)…694,119 yen
●BLF action fee including supports for the disabled in sports and in employment…the rest

Achievement in 2016

《Players》
Shogo Akiyama, Alex Ramirez, Hirokazu Ibata, Koji Uehara, Yoshio Itoi, Ryota Imanari, Hisashi Iwakuma, Minoru Iwata, Seiichi Uchikawa, Kenji Otonari, Yasuhiro Ogawa, Yuki Karakawa, Kentaro Kyuko, Yuki Kuniyoshi, Clay Buchholz, Hirokazu Sawamura, Yosuke Shimabukuro, Hisanori Takahashi, Toshihisa Nishi, Daisuke Miura, Yuki Yanagita, Shun Yamaguchi, Takeshi Yamasaki, Tsuyoshi Wada

《Balance》
●All amount of winning bid: 1,208,169 yen
●Expenses: System fee for Yahoo! 65,491 yen/deputizing fee 120,817 yen/others120,817 yen
●Profit: 901,044 yen

《Use of profit》
●Donation for Make A Wish of Japan…100,000 yen
●Purchase of repaired baseballs for employment support of the disabled…100,000 yen
●Donation for Japan Wheelchair Softball Association…100,000 yen
●BLF action fee to support players’ charitable activities…the rest

Employment Support for The Disabled by Baseball Repair

Gathering broken baseballs from the schools and the teams all over Japan, the disabled sew and repair them in Shoyuen, the facility of their employment support. We purchase these repaired baseballs, have them autographed by former/active professional baseball players, and give them to BLF donors and supporters as the gifts in return. The profit from our purchase is allotted to the wage for the disabled, which helps them socially independent.

Adapted Sports Support

「REAL HERO」, an apparel brand supporting the adapted sports and athletes, produces BLF’s “BASEBALL SAVES THE WORLD” t-shirts. Part of the revenue is donated for their support.

Our performance since 2014

Support for reconstruction after the earthquake

-Donated 694,119 yen for Kumamoto Prefecture
-Donated 250,000 yen for NGO Peace Winds Japan for Kumamoto emergency assistance

The adapted sports support

-Donated 100,000 yen to Japan Wheelchair Softball Association
-Volunteering and sponsoring Lions Cup Wheelchair Softball event
-Sales of charity t-shirts to donate the part of revenue to the adapted sports and athlete.

Employment support for the disabled

-100,000 yen purchase of the repaired baseballs for the wage of the disabled.
-Supporting Yoshimi’s Again Ball Project.

Support for the kids with incurable disease

-Donate 100,000 yen to Make A Wish of Japan.

Support Developing countries

Operation for the Calorie Off-set Program by Saitama Seibu Lions donating 650,425 yen to Leyte Island of the Philippines.

Support Type 1 diabetes awareness

We produced Iwata’s publication and donated the part of royalty to the diabetes association.