I'm just wondering if I'm the only person who thinks that Baseball opening on foreign soil is stupid. I can understand Toronto or Montreal, since those two cities have MLB franchises, and the U.S. and Canada share most major sports. But to open the nation's pastime overseas like this just seems ridiculous.

What's the point? If one is opposed to this, does it make this person some kind of jingoist? Just wondering. Maybe I'm too much of a traditionalist where Baseball is concerned.

30 years from now, MLB will have franchises in Japan and the Caribbean, or have those teams incorporated into an international championship -- or it will be on its way to extinction.

I agree with you MIB. Yankee fans, or fans of any team that has to do this, should be pissed off. If you want to see your team's opening game, you have to get up anywhere from 2am-5am depending on your time zone. Complete nonsense.

Overseas is where the sport is growing, which means that trips like this will continue to be made. So the question is, when can you send two teams that far overseas for something other than exhibitions without having a major impact on the schedule? If you do it during the season you need a couple of days off before and after because of the travel involved. That's like adding an All-Star break. With 162 games and no scheduled doubleheaders, that's not really possible. Opening Day overseas is less of a disruption (though still a disruption). It's not traditional but if there has to be a trip like this, it's the best option.

George and MIB are so far-sighted on this issue... they could be MLB owners!

haharhar!

i'm with ya bill!

What I find particulary weird is that they play a couple of game overseas that count in the standings and then come back to the U.S. and play more exhibition games!

It's all about revenues for MLB and the teams involved. I haven't seen any firm figures for the amount being made, just vague generalities. Does anyone know what's being made by the teams?

~Adam

I don't think I've ever been as insulted in my life, Bill! That was low. Real low.

Agreed. It's not ideal, but it's the least objectionable choice. Baseball needs to grow the game, and the international markets are the most fertile fields for that.

Jayson Stark wrote an outstanding column on this very subject that appeared on ESPN.com last week....I agree wholeheartedly with the points that he makes (along with those expressed by MIB and GVF on this thread) and while I'm all for globalization of the sport to have Opening Day (which I have said for years should be a national holiday -- and only half jokingly at that) take place halfway across the globe is absolutely absurd!....this is just another in the LONG list of blunders that Selig has made as commissioner to deprive the true American baseball fan of being able to fully enjoy our National Pasttime....what do you think the reaction would be if Paul Tagliabue suddenly announced that he was going to schedule the first two REGULAR SEASON NFL games to be played overseas and broadcast live to start at 2-5AM local time (on a weekday, nonetheless)? -- this would undoubtedly result in a public outcry among sports fans in this country the likes of which we have never seen....the only reason I can think of for why a similar response has not occurred here is due to some form of "political correctness".

As Adam mentioned, what is even more ludicrous is that after playing two REGULAR SEASON games in Tokyo that count towards their 162 game stats the Yanks and D-Rays will then return to Florida later this week to play more EXHIBITION GAMES eek! before "reopening" their regular season against each other again in Tampa next Tuesday and Wednesday....me thinks your average elementary school student could come up with a better plan and more well thought-out schedule than these greedy "geniuses" devised to open the 2004 season. frown

Oh, come on, now. No one here, so far as I can tell, ever holds back when given a chance to criticize MLB and/or Bud Selig. If there isn't an outcry it's because people don't think it's that big a deal. They probably should, but they don't.

I'm not sure why they're going to Tokyo, though. They're not going to expand or move a team to Tokyo any time soon.

And THIS (from the Stark article) is just WRONG:

:confused:

No argument from me there, Joe -- that is definitely WRONG....which is why I recommend that any cable or satellite subscribers that receive the YES Network (channel 622 for anyone with the DirecTV sports package) watch the games LIVE there....the commentators may be more than a little biased in favor of the Bronx Bombers but at least they'll be broadcasting the game from the SAME CONTINENT where it's being played!

Could the logistics be handled a little better? Probably. But on balance, this is one of the few things MLB has gotten right lately.

The globalization of the game is as inevitable to its survival as integration was in 1947. Are you gonna ask MLB teams to disrupt their biological clocks and lives for exhibition games? Not unless it's November, when America has moved on to other sports.

The NFL analogy breaks down because, in their wisdom, no one outside of North America gives a shit about the boring gridiron...