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Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution apparently has just realized that baseball's Opening Day is in Japan. My God! Wasn't there a memo about this?
Good morning. You just missed Opening Day.
The Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics played the first game of the major league season Tuesday morning (normal baseball earth time) in Tokyo. I imagine Japan will reciprocate this breach of tradition by opening the sumo season at Fenway Park.
“You’re taking something many consider like a national folk festival and moving it overseas,” said Roger Kahn, baseball purist and author of several books, including the classic, “The Boys of Summer.”
“They just dumped it.”
Oooh, you got Roger Kahn to get all upset! That's so hard to do! Don't tell Kahn that the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn either.
The first pitch for A’s fans was scheduled for 3:05 a.m. Pacific time. Advantages?
“There are a lot of bars that’ll still be open in Oakland,” Kahn said. “Jack London used to drink there all the time.”
I don't know where Roger Kahn drinks in Oakland, but California law prohibits the sale of alcohol between 2 and 6 am. Perhaps people in Oakland will just be drinking shots in the privacy of their own home at 3 am. Sounds a lot like something Jack London would have done.
Look, it's not great that I'm not going to see the first two games of the major league season. But you know what? I'll live with it. I won't get all pissed off about it like idiots such as Jeff Schultz and Roger Freakin' Kahn.
You know what pisses me off? Roger Kahn! And dopes like Jeff Schultz.
The Braves open Sunday night in Washington, a made-for-ESPN event in the Nationals’ new stadium. They return home after one game. As unconventional as that is, at least they’re in the same time zone. And continent.
The fact that for many years the major league season would open with a game in Washington is apparently lost on Schultz. You know they would do things like get the President to throw out the first pitch. Stuff like that. But instead Schultz goes on and on about Cincinnati. Does anyone really miss seeing Opening Day in Cincinnati?
And there was even one year when the first game of the year was in ... MEXICO!
I heart Angry Timmermann.
But I guess when you hit 80 you can rant about opening day decorum, real or imagined.
You're gonna have to come down here, Kahn...You hear me?
By a wide margin.
Were the hell have been??
I would still prefer that this not turn into "The Big Lebowski."
"The sport's not in great health here and we're playing games in Japan?"
"Isn't their league doing well? Some people say their league is better than ours."
I guess the $6 billion in revenue isn't great health?
And the A's and Red Sox made two of the better teams in Japan look like AAA outfits.
JD Drew had General Soreness after hitting a grand slam in an earlier contest. Trotting around the bases must have tweaked his back.
And one season, the old Montreal team played a number of games in Puerto Rico!!!
It is almost as if MLB wants to grow the game globally (like the NFL playing a regular season game in freaking London) and is playing games in countries where a lot of players come from!
I do miss Opening Day in Cincinnati. Though I would make an exception for playing halfway around the world.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLE/1993_sched.shtml
Opening day is a local event for one team. It is not a national event. How many of those Cincinnati home openers did you ever see televised?
"A crowd of 44,628, including fans from Boston, cheered at the Tokyo Dome, which hosted baseball's opener for the third time in nine years"
Take that, Roger Kahn.
Interesting that they actually reported the true capacity of the Tokyo Dome instead of saying that there were "55,000" that they usually do. Even though there aren't 55,000 seats and there is really no place to stand where you can see the game.
Beginning in the 90's I thought I saw them all the time on ESPN but I could be wrong.
I don't really have a problem with opening day starting somewhere else. I have a problem with opening day starting 6 days before the rest of the league, and then playing practice baseball after they played opening day. It really sounds like something that would happen in bizarro world.
Don't disagree with Roger Kahn! He knows better.
I agree with Bob in 22 . I never watched a Cincinnati home opener. Also, doesn't each team that opens on the road also have an Opening Day celebration for their first home game? There isn't one Opening Day, there are 30, and this year 31, with the Japan games opening day for the season and the Sox and A's still having Opening Days in their own ballparks.
The time is awful for us left-coasters, but New Englanders could have Breakfast with the Red Sox and still get to work no later than if they a morning doctors appointment.
I agree with 26 that the subsequent exhibition games are weird. Give the teams a few days off and let them open the Oakland Coliseum (or whatever it's called) on the weekend.
Greatest line ever.
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