Editing Nippon Professional Baseball (section)

===1960s and 1970s===
On September 1, 1964, [[Nankai Hawks]]' prospect [[Masanori Murakami]] became the first Japanese player to play in [[Major League Baseball]]<ref name="murakami">{{cite web |url=http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news_story.jsp?article_id=sf_20011220_murakami_news&team_id=sf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020818134206/http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news_story.jsp?article_id=sf_20011220_murakami_news&team_id=sf |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 18, 2002 |title=Where have you gone, Masanori Murakami? |access-date=November 13, 2008 |publisher=[[Major League Baseball]] |date=December 24, 2001 |author=Kleinberg, Alexander }}</ref> when he appeared on the mound for the [[San Francisco Giants]]; he returned to Japan in 1966. Disputes over the rights to his contract eventually led to the 1967 United States – Japanese Player Contract Agreement; it would be almost 30 years before another Japanese player played in the Major Leagues.{{explain|date=March 2023}}

Continuing their dominance from the JBL, the [[Yomiuri Giants]] won nine consecutive [[Japan Series]] championships from 1965 to 1973.

[[The Black Mist Scandal (Japanese baseball)|The Black Mist Scandal]] rocked Nippon Professional Baseball between 1969 and 1971. The fallout from a series of game-fixing scandals resulted in several star players receiving long suspensions, salary cuts, or being banned from professional play entirely; the resulting abandonment of baseball by many fans in Japan also led to the sale of the [[Nishitetsu Lions]] and the [[Toei Flyers]].

From 1973 to 1982, in a forerunner to today's Climax Series playoff rounds, the [[Pacific League]] employed a split season with the first-half winner playing against the second-half winner in a mini-playoff to determine its champion. In 1975, the Pacific League adopted the [[designated hitter]] rule. These were implemented in an attempt to draw fans back to Pacific League, as the Pacific League was hit significantly harder by the Black Mist Scandal than the Central League, with only the [[Hankyu Braves]] not having players involved in the incident.