Japan MLB cameo an insult to Yakyu?
By Mile High Mouth
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news
It seems bizarre to me that the season has started. It seems bizarre for one plain and simple reason. We had a two game series, and then we’re at a standstill for a few days before teams start playing in the states again. It doesn’t really make sense. Which brings me to the major point of this article, my complaints about the Opening Series at the Tokyo Dome. We’ll start at the beginning . . .
For starters (and I’m not the only one who feels this way), it’s monstrously unfair to both the Red Sox and the A’s. More the Red Sox than the A’s, but we’ll get to that in a second. Sure, they get rest before and rest afterwards, but at what price? They have to fly to Japan, play some exhibition games against JPL teams, play a two game series, and then back to the states. It has to mess with your head to land in America on what is (as far as time zones go) the same night that you played a ball game in Tokyo. It’s just insanity. However, Oakland had the advantage of landing back in California, and playing at home relatively soon. The Red Sox weren’t so lucky.
A lot of people said the Red Sox did really well last year because they came strong out of the gate against the New York Yankees. That could be the reason. It sure didn’t hurt them. However, whether or not that was the cause, it won’t be this year. The Sox are going to be doing a very long road trip of California before they get home. Most teams will have already had more than one home series before the Red Sox even play at Fenway. Not cool MLB. Not cool. However, this is only a fraction of what I’m upset about. Oakland is pretty strong, and Boston is pretty strong. Whatever problems they might face as a result of this series, they still have 160 games left in the season to make up for it. A lot can happen between now and September. My major complaint is the way we treat Japan concerning baseball.
I remember first hearing about this when Ichiro was signed to the Mariners. A lot of people felt it wasn’t really fair for him to be deemed a rookie. After all, he had played with the best of the best in Japan. Why is he all of the sudden a rookie in Seattle? Granted, there are differences between JPL ball and MLB ball, but it’s the same game! Frankly, I would feel insulted if I were Japanese. The other thing is that it’s not really an interesting marketing move. There were some exhibition games in China this year in an effort to bring the sport to them this year. The Chinese were not impressed. They said the game moved to slow. Why do I have less of a problem with this? China doesn’t really have baseball. Japan has had baseball since the days of Babe Ruth. They have loved baseball since the days of Babe Ruth. We don’t need to market baseball to Japan. They get how awesome it is. They understand that so much that they have more than one professional baseball league over there!
I know what some people are thinking. MLB ball is of a higher caliber than JPL ball. The Japanese want us to play over there. It’s an interesting way to kick off our season. These might all be good points, but I don’t feel they outweigh my points. I love that the Japanese love baseball. In fact, most of my favorite players are Japanese players. However, I think it’s unfair to our teams, and something of an insult to theirs to start our season over there.
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