PHOENIX – So, Major League Baseball wants to grab hold of that international limelight, expand its marketplace and build a foreign fan base, which is why — for the fifth time in 14 years — it is exporting its regular season opener.
Good idea.
But if it's all about exposing the world to baseball at its best, what the heck is baseball doing with the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners sharing the limelight in the Tokyo Dome in the premature opening to 2012 on March 28-29?
These are not the Yankees or Red Sox or Cardinals or Dodgers — teams steeped in successful tradition.
The coach turned into a pumpkin a few years back for both these franchises, which — due to their need to get ready in a hurry — hooked up Friday afternoon at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in the first major league game of the spring.
Not that anybody is complaining.
So what if the A's have suffered through five consecutive losing seasons. They have received plenty of hype, thanks to the publicity surrounding "Moneyball." And besides, MLB had to find a team that was willing to give up home dates, and the A's, given their struggle to sell tickets, welcomed the two sellouts for the games against Seattle.
The Mariners may have suffered six losing seasons in the last eight years, including five in which they lost 90-plus games, but they do feature a Japanese icon in Ichiro Suzuki, whose return home in a major league game has created enough of a buzz in Japan that there are close to 50 members of the Japanese media visiting Arizona this spring to get some insight on Ichiro's pending return.
The fans don't seem to care these are two losing teams. Both games, along with the two exhibition games each team will play, will be sellouts. The ticket prices for the two A's-Mariners games at the Tokyo Dome ran from roughly $20 for standing room only to $254 for seats behind home plate.
And Seattle is considered America's gateway to the Pacific, having created strong business and social ties with Japan long before the Mariners became primary importers of Japanese baseball talent.
"More Mariners games have been televised in Japan over the past 10 years than any other MLB team, so the fans there will be familiar with us," said Mariners president Chuck Armstrong. "This will be a memorable experience for our players and our organization.
The arrival of the Japanese player in the big leagues is a relatively recent occurrence. Masanori Murakami pitched with San Francisco in 1964-65, but the next Japanese big-leaguer didn't show up until pitcher Mac Suzuki in 1996. Forty-three others have followed. This year, Texas is adding right-handed phenom Yu Darvish.
"The game really has changed," said Mariners manager Eric Wedge. "It really is an international game, and we have strong ties with Japan. A lot of it had to do with Ken Griffey (now a special adviser to the Mariners front office) and now Ichiro."
The first time baseball journeyed outside of its traditional boundaries for its opener was when the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres opened the 1999 season in Monterrey, Mexico.
The last four times, baseball has taken its game across the Pacific to Japan, where the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs met in 2000, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays battled in 2004 and the A's and Boston Red Sox faced off in 2008. The A's and Mariners also were scheduled for a trip to Japan in 2003, but that series was canceled because of the threat of the war in Iraq.
This time, they're making the trip.
Seattle has made the most drastic adjustments. The M's welcomed pitchers and catchers to spring training Feb. 12, and the rest of the team showed up Feb. 18, nearly a week before other teams. As a result, the players were becoming eager to finally get into a game on Friday, having endured all the batting practice and fielding drills a team can handle.
The A's, having been through the event four years ago, decided to pass on early reporting dates.
"The biggest thing was to get (the two starting pitchers) ready," said A's manager Bob Melvin. "Other than that, there's not a real concern. Remember, when it's over, we are coming back to Arizona and will play four more exhibition games before the season (resumes). It's a long season. No sense making it longer."
It's also a long plane ride – 6,000 miles each way. But those who have been to Japan feel it is worth it, particularly in light of the royal treatment they are given by their Japanese hosts.
"I went over there with the All-Star team after the season a few years ago and everything is top notch," said A's reliever Brian Fuentes.
The biggest challenges are for the men in charge of the details.
A's traveling secretary Mickey Morabito said he has to make sure he has a visa for all 60 players in the A's spring camp because, "You don't know who's making team and it's not something you can ask for a day or two before we depart."
Morabito learned from the experience four years ago to take a proactive approach to getting the visas. Instead of handing out forms and asking for them to be returned, "I held the meal money hostage until I got the forms."
That got the players' attention.
Now, baseball is counting on these players to help it get some international attention.
