Opening Day

It's the smell of fresh cut grass... hot dogs on the grill... it's the taste of an ice cold beer... of garlic fries and pretzels... it's the sight of military airplanes performing a flyby overhead... of girls in their summer skirts and flip flops... it's the sound of the peanut vendor yelling "nuts... nuts..!" and the idiot cholo sitting in front of you following it with the classic "in your mouth" inappropriate remark. It's opening day. A sacred holiday for basebally fans. We've been waiting all winter for it, and it's finally here. Wait... it's there... across the pacific... in Tokyo, Japan? WTF? Yup. Baseball opening day in Japan! Forget America's pastime, the Star Spangled Banner and apple pie.

In an attempt of world domination, the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland A's faced off for a two game series to open the season as part of Major League baseball's effort to widen its appeal on the international market. Studies predict that within the next few years baseball will surpass the NFL in total revenue... somewhere in the ballpark of 6 billion dollars (pardon the pun). Why opening day? If you're a member of the red sox nation or one of 34 Oakland A's fans in the Pacific time zone, first pitch for the games was 3:05am. Ask your coworkers around the water cooler and I bet most won't even know two games have already been played in the major league season.

Comming out of an off season in which steriods, Brian McNamee, congressional hearings, and Roger Clemens were the headlines, baseball doesn't need the World Champion Red Sox to open so far away from home. Now they return to the states to play three more spring training games in Los Angeles before heading to Oakland to finish up their four game series.

These games would have been scheduled best around the All-Star break, or at some point early in the season if they wanted to play meaningful games.. best bet was to play exhibition games... what can we expect next? the world ping pong championships to be hosted in Los Angeles? I think not.