Season Opener Overseas???

[durl]

What in the world are they trying to do the game?? Now MLB is going to open next season in China or Japan?!? Reds fans should be especially upset at this. Now only has MLB taken the first pitch of the season away, not they're taking it out of the whole country!

This has GOT to stop. :angry:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070301&content_id=1821008&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnered=rss_mlb

[Yachtzee]

They've already opened the season overseas twice. When I lived in Chicago in 2000, the Cubs opened the season in Japan. I'm sure it was great for the Japanese, but it was horrible for US fans. I remember a lot of grousing about the games being on TV in the early morning when most people were getting ready to go to work. I personally remember not even thinking of them as real games, even though they counted. It all seemed like a continuation of Spring Training.

I think overseas exhibitions are fine, but I think it's unfair to ask a team and its fans to give up a few home games in order to expand the game abroad. Honestly I'm surprised they haven't tried sending the All-Star game overseas yet.

[TOBTTReds]

What in the world are they trying to do the game?? Now MLB is going to open next season in China or Japan?!? Reds fans should be especially upset at this. Now only has MLB taken the first pitch of the season away, not they're taking it out of the whole country!

This has GOT to stop. :angry:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070301&content_id=1821008&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnered=rss_mlb

Where were you last year?

And to answer your question, they are trying to expand the popularity of the game. China and Japan would be gold mines for them, like it is for Ichiro and the Mariners.

[TeamBoone]

Isn't the game already the top sport in Japan? You can't get much better than that.

My question is: what does it matter to MLB whether or not the game is popular globally? What am I missing here?

Wouldn't they be better off taking the major league teams to some smaller venues in the US a few times during the season? You know, towns that may have a single or double A team?

[durl]

I remember when they first started opening the season overseas several years back but I hoped that they were done with that. The fact that they're planning to continue it just makes me livid. MLB is trying to attract fans in Asia and they don't seem to care about those of us in the US. They can do other things to promote the game overseas but I believe opening the season clear across the globe should be off the table.

[TRF]

Isn't the game already the top sport in Japan? You can't get much better than that.

My question is: what does it matter to MLB whether or not the game is popular globally? What am I missing here?

Wouldn't they be better off taking the major league teams to some smaller venues in the US a few times during the season? You know, towns that may have a single or double A team?

As travel abroad becomes more routine, and advances in air travel allow someone to cross the Pacific in a matter of a couple of hours, the game will become global. Eventually, there will be MLB teams in Mexico, Japan, China, Austrailia, Denmark.... and on and on. Better that MLB leads the charge than some upstart league that goes global.

[savafan]

I would be okay with this if MLB also flew all season ticket holders overseas as well to attend these games. As it is, they're getting screwed out of their investment.

[TeamBoone]

As travel abroad becomes more routine, and advances in air travel allow someone to cross the Pacific in a matter of a couple of hours, the game will become global. Eventually, there will be MLB teams in Mexico, Japan, China, Austrailia, Denmark.... and on and on. Better that MLB leads the charge than some upstart league that goes global.

This seems extremely far-fetched to me.

MLB can not reasonably expect its clubs to routinely fly their teams to Japan, China, Australia, and Denmark to play in-season games. Not only would that be time consuming during the season, but jet lag would be a huge factor to the traveling team... and those games would count.

In addition, international travel to far-away countries such as these is expensive and it would be flat-out foolish for MLB to expect teams to fork out that kind of money... probably taking away from payroll dollars if they do.

Or, are you suggesting these countries have their own leagues but management would belong to MLB?

[Yachtzee]

This seems extremely far-fetched to me.

MLB can not reasonably expect its clubs to routinely fly their teams to Japan, China, Australia, and Denmark to play in-season games. Not only would that be time consuming during the season, but jet lag would be a huge factor to the traveling team... and those games would count.

In addition, international travel to far-away countries such as these is expensive and it would be flat-out foolish for MLB to expect teams to fork out that kind of money... probably taking away from payroll dollars if they do.

Or, are you suggesting these countries have their own leagues but management would belong to MLB?

I think those issues are exactly the reason why international play in MLB won't work. You could put teams in Mexico and the Carribean at best, but the travel time, expense, jet lag, etc. would be too impractical for play in places like Japan, Australia, and Europe. At best, I think they could have an international playoff, but to try have the kind of play in season...I just don't see it working anytime soon.

[TRF]

60 years ago, clubs traveled everywhere by train.

within two decades you will see transatlantic flights that are less than 3 hours.

[Yachtzee]

60 years ago, clubs traveled everywhere by train.

within two decades you will see transatlantic flights that are less than 3 hours.

That may be true, but it still doesn't change the time-change and jet-lag issues. Eastern time-zone players on a West Coast trip only have to deal with a 3 hour time difference. How fair is it to have games where one team feels like it's playing at 4 am where the other team's players are playing at their regularly scheduled time? International trips would require a couple of days before and after for players to adjust to the time zone changes.

[TRF]

Perhaps, but MLB will have to deal with these issues if it truly wants to be a global game. I think it does want that. It won't be a smooth transition, but it will happen.

[TeamBoone]

Perhaps, but MLB will have to deal with these issues if it truly wants to be a global game. I think it does want that. It won't be a smooth transition, but it will happen.

I don't think it will. Perhaps some leagues in other countries, but it just isn't time or cost effective. For Pete's sake, it's 14 hours to Australia!

[Yachtzee]

Perhaps, but MLB will have to deal with these issues if it truly wants to be a global game. I think it does want that. It won't be a smooth transition, but it will happen.

I don't know. I think the best they can hope for is to work in partnership with foreign leagues to raise the profile and level of play in other countries, much like soccer. But there are just too many constraints to deal with to make a world wide MLB with regular season games played on different continents by teams in the same division or even the same league. I think the time zone/diurnal clock of the human body issue makes international play on that scale possible only in a World Cup context or at most maybe a playoff tournament format.

[Yachtzee]

I don't think it will. Perhaps some leagues in other countries, but it just isn't time or cost effective. For Pete's sake, it's 14 hours to Australia!

Not to mention the fact that our summer is their winter.

[Chip R]

Wouldn't they be better off taking the major league teams to some smaller venues in the US a few times during the season? You know, towns that may have a single or double A team?


I doubt you'd see owners giving up a series or two which would mean a loss in revenue. Plus you have issues with the quality of the ballparks. As nice as these new minor league ballparks may be, a lot of them are still inferior in regards to lights and the qualty of the field. I wouldn't want to see a ball hit to EE hit some kind of divot or rock and break a bone in his face. The Players Association would also have something to say about this.

I think it would be difficult to play games overseas, especially in the Far East. Plane travel may get faster in the future but there's still that old international date line and all those time zones. Unless they can figure out a way to beam the teams there, I think it's a bad idea.