2017 Seibu Lions schedule opens against defending champion Fighters

Opening Day for the Lions will be against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

The 2017 NPB regular season schedule was released on Friday afternoon. For the Saitama Seibu Lions, they will be facing the defending champion Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters on March 31.

With the World Baseball Classic happening in March, the regular season for NPB will kick off a week later than before, making the season end a week into October as a result. This will be the second straight time the Lions play at the defending champion's home opener as they saw the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in Fukuoka for 2016.

Here are links to the full schedule for the Seibu (西武) Lions:

(Home team is listed on the left)

April 2017 Schedule

May 2017 Schedule

June 2017 Schedule

July 2017 Schedule

August 2017 Schedule

September 2017 Schedule

October 2017 Schedule

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Here is the list of special or irregular games to pay attention to on the schedule:

3/31 - Opening Day against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Sapporo Dome

4/4 - Opening Day for the Seibu Lions home opener facing the Orix Buffaloes

4/11 - The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles play a home game in all 5 surrounding Tohoku prefectures besides their normal home at Kobo Stadium in Miyagi prefecture. For April 11, the Lions will be the road team in Koriyama, Fukushima. It will be the first time they've been in Fukushima since 2015, when they faced the Yomiuri Giants.

4/18, 5/25 and 8/25 - The Lions will play in Omiya, which is deeper into Saitama prefecture. This is usually a tradition to have three games out there. They will see Rakuten on 4/18, Fighters on 5/25 and Orix Buffaloes on 8/25.

4/25, 5/12, and 9/1 - The Lions will have three games in Hotto Motto, Kobe against the Orix Buffaloes.

5/23 - The Lions will have a home game in Maebashi, Gunma.  This is the same city where Kona Takahashi played baseball in high school and he will most likely start the game in front of his home crowd barring no injury.

6/27 and 6/28 - The Lions will have two home games in Naha, Okinawa against the Chiba Lotte Marines. NPB always has two games in Okinawa every regular season and this time it falls on the Lions. The cool bonus is how Hotaka Yamakawa and Shinsaburo Tawata are Okinawa natives. This will be the first time the Lions have played a home game in Okinawa since 1961, when they were Nishitetsu Lions.

7/3 and 7/4 - The Lions will be the road team in Tokyo Dome against the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. As with tradition, the Fighters play a handful of home games in Tokyo Dome, their former home building before they moved to Sapporo as a way to satisfy their fans who live in the Kanto region.

7/15 - All Star Game #1 will be in Nagoya Dome (Chunichi Dragons)

7/16 - All Star Game #2 will be in QVC (name change coming soon) Marine Field in Chiba.

7/19 - The Lions will be in Kitakyushu (northern part of Fukuoka prefecture) to face the Softbank Hawks.

10/5 - The final scheduled regular season game for the Lions will be in Seibu Dome against the Fighters, like last season.  Like anything, there could be makeup games after this date.

In the event there is rain at any of these special location games and no official game was played, the makeup will happen at the home team's traditional home and fans in the area away get robbed of seeing a game.

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