Pro baseball goes potent in pink on Mother’s Day

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:40 JST, May 10, 2021

The players wore pink wristbands and swung pink bats. Even the umpires sported the color as Japan pro baseball held its first “NPB Mother’s Day” at all games Sunday as an expression of gratitude for mothers across the country.

At Tokyo Dome — where letters and numbers were displayed in pink — Kazuma Okamoto, sporting pink spikes, clouted a three-run “sayonara” home run in the bottom of the ninth inning that gave the host Yomiuri Giants a 7-5 victory over the crosstown rival Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

It was one of two homers hit by Okamoto, while Yoshihiro Maru homered with a pink bat for the Giants.

“I think it was good that everyone was playing with the thought of returning the favor [to their mothers] with a sense of gratitude,” Giants manager Tatsunori Hara said.