Play Ball (Japanese: プレイボール, Hepburn: Purei Bōru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akio Chiba. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1973 to 1978, with its chapters collected in twenty-two tankōbon volumes. The manga was adapted into an anime television series produced by Magic Bus and Eiken, which aired on the anime satellite television network Animax from July to September 2005 and a second season from January to March 2006.