The season-opening series in Tokyo has been called off due to the impending war. The games will be played April 3 and June 30 in Oakland instead.

Frankly the games should not have even been scheduled in the first place. Kind of silly to have 'America's Pasttime" open their regular season in Japan.

Glad to see this. And glad to see that the NCAA decided to CONTINUE the tournament. That would have been a travesty to cancel, even though many friends/classmates of these athletes are going to be the ones overseas fighting the war in Iraq.

Plus ... this was starting the regular season way too early.
I don't understand Ugly Bud's campaign to render Opening Day meaningless. But, then again, I'm one of those traditionalists who are destroying baseball.

I thought NCAA had decided to delay. Seems a bit iffy, to me.

I think it's a disappointment for the Japanese baseball fans, as well as the large number of A's/M's fans from the U.S. who will lose money that was spent on air-fare, hotels, etc.. I realize that the safety of the players, their families, and the fans are much more important than a couple of baseball games, but is the risk of a terrorist attack so great that MLB should cancel the trip? Seattle is not the only place with Mariner fans, with all regular season M's games being televised in Japan, there's a large fan-base there too!

George, MLB clearly will have several teams in Japan if it exists 50 years from now, and the season has opened there before. Get used to sharing our pastime with the world.

As for the cancellation, as with most sports-related things these days... who cares?

I'm frankly disappointed. I'm sure the Japanese could have handled any additional security requirements the would have been necessary. Since the Japanese are such big baseball fans, have become a source of some very talented MLB players, and have been generally supportive of US efforts in Iraq, they should have bit the bullet and gone ahead with it. What kind of message does this send? We're afraid, we're stayin' home.

Wimps! Millionaire pussies!

With war imminent, businesses of all types all over the world will be cancelling or at least scaling back unneccessary international travel. Why should baseball be any different? Fine the Japanese are big baseball fans, but they did have their own leagues last time I checked. Somehow I think they'll survive the disappointment.

You knopw what I find strange about this...they're gonna play those games in Anaheim. Why? I mean if you want a neutral site, why not Portland, OR? I mean they're trying to get the Expo's aren't they? And it's kind of in between Oakland and Seattle. This make sense to anyone else? Does anybody have an answer as to why they chose Anaheim (and not Dodger Stadium for that matter)?

Yesterday morning, in response to the President's speech on Monday night, my employer implemented an open-ended ban on all business travel outside the US. The general guideline is that it will reevaluated "as circumstances dictate," but that folks should expect thirty days to be a reasonable timeframe. Frankly, many of us that travel were already requesting such a step - frankly, at a time like this you just feel more secure in your own country. I've spent a lot of time this year in Europe, and there are strong emotions about America there right now that can be uncomfortable for some. I was scheduled to go to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo after Easter but was really feeling I didn't want to leave the US - and it wasn't helped by reading about this new strain of pneumonia in asia right now. My point (I do have one) is that I think a big part of this decision revolved around the desire of the players and MLB officials to be in the US during such a sensitive period.

[ March 19, 2003, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: Munson Man ]

No, Oakland. They were A's home games that were moved to Japan. Now they'll be moved back to Oakland (as shown above and in linked article).