Orix Manager Katsuhiro Nakamura is looking for a nickname for his batting order that will feature Norihiro Nakamura, Kazuhiro Kiyohara and maybe even Tuffy Rhodes, if things workout for the latter, and wants to hear ideas from the fans. 

Seibu Manager Tsutomu Itoh made a personal appearance before about 200 fans Monday and, when asked about Orix' acquisitions of Norihiro Nakamura and Kazuhiro Kiyohara, hinted that injuries may limit the number of games both men will play in. Itoh later expressed hope that the Lions, which saw off years from shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima and fatal pitching breakdowns, especially in the bullpen, can win 70 games and stay close enough to Softbank to pull out an eventual pennant in the playoffs. That would seem to be an admission that they will have to get a lot of help by having bottom feeders such as Nippon Ham and Rakuten knock off the Hawks and the Chiba Lotte Marines often enough to make any pennant chance viable. It also didn't help that he lost his setup man, Shinji Mori, to Tampa Bay and his closer, Kiyoshi Toyoda, to Yomiuri. 

Leftfielder and 2005 Pacific League batting champ Kazuhiro Wada took part in the same event and displayed some concern about the different ball used in MLB, which is just a hair bigger. He said that he will ask Ichiro and Tadahito Iguchi about how to deal with that as well as big league pitching in general.