Does MLB have it wrong? (season opener)

[brewizard]

Not sure why you would think there would be team highlights.

 

 

 

I didn't expect team highlights, but I expected the scores. (I think sports coverage tends to be better WITH the scores.) But Japanese coverage of MLB games really included ONLY shots and descriptions of the Japanese player. Nothing else. Once Ohka was out of the game in the 6th inning, the game might as well have been sucked away in a vortex. Who cares who won. Ohka pitched today in America... Here he is. That's it.

 

 

 

And it was the same for most of the Japanese players in the MLB.

 

 

 

I just found it odd. I saw the Hiroshima Carp play the Nippon Ham Fighters, and the crowds were fantastic. They do care about baseball.

[ccbrew]

Not sure why you would think there would be team highlights.

I didn't expect team highlights, but I expected the scores. (I think sports coverage tends to be better WITH the scores.) But Japanese coverage of MLB games really included ONLY shots and descriptions of the Japanese player. Nothing else. Once Ohka was out of the game in the 6th inning, the game might as well have been sucked away in a vortex. Who cares who won. Ohka pitched today in America... Here he is. That's it.

 

And it was the same for most of the Japanese players in the MLB.

This isn't true. I apologize for being curt, but I haven't ever seen a highlight where they don't mention the score or flash it on the screen..and I've been here for Nomo-mania through now. The player-based coverage only really is true for the 10 minute sports section of a typical news broadcast, and there isn't really a Japanese equivalent of ESPN and SportsCenter. The emphasis is definitely on how the individual players performed and you'll rarely see how the teams scored their non-Japanese-player-related runs, but to construe it as the fans not caring about the teams is not right.

 

I do agree that it's frustrating when you hear the typical 10 second news clip: "Akinori Otsuka and the San Diego Padres played the Milwaukee Brewers today, and Otsuka threw 2/3 of an inning, giving up 0 runs and 0 hits . The Padres lost the game 7-2." This pretty much sums up what brought me to this very site.

 

I understand the passion people have for Opening Day, and the time of game certainly could have been better to accommodate U.S. fans - especially those on the west coast. But like others have said, it sure beats the alternative of trying to do this midseason. The benefit of playing games here are both tangible and intangible.

[ILuvDaBush]

Well considering how most people believe we're going to be losing Prince in the next four years if we don't get his John Hancock on a big contract, perhaps we should petition Uncle Bud to allow us to play next year's "Opener" so we can showcase Prince to the rich Island in hopes of extracting a $50+ million posting fee. :-)

[Brewtacular]

again, I don't care if they play over seas, just not opening day.

Yeah cause it is ours and we are Americans! I mean it is not like the Tour de France ever started in London......

Opening day will still be opening day 2-3 games in Tokyo really change nothing. Fans in Oakland will still have time to drink the beers and get the botox done in parking lot for their first home game.

[Brewtacular]

Not sure why you would think there would be team highlights.

I didn't expect team highlights, but I expected the scores. (I think sports coverage tends to be better WITH the scores.) But Japanese coverage of MLB games really included ONLY shots and descriptions of the Japanese player. Nothing else. Once Ohka was out of the game in the 6th inning, the game might as well have been sucked away in a vortex. Who cares who won. Ohka pitched today in America... Here he is. That's it.

 

And it was the same for most of the Japanese players in the MLB.

This isn't true. I apologize for being curt, but I haven't ever seen a highlight where they don't mention the score or flash it on the screen..and I've been here for Nomo-mania through now. T

While I understand you have speant much more time there than I did, 3 years, I beg to differ. I watched loads of 'highlights' on BS 2 that would misremember to mention the score. Heck, they cut off a couple off live games in the 9th inning and switiched to the news or another game.

[endaround]

I have no objection to playing regular-season games in Japan; it's probably a smart thing, long-term. But the timing of things seemed totally out of whack on several different levels. The time difference meant that folks in the Bay Area had to get up at 3 a.m. to watch the game live. That seems inexcusable to me. As others have mentioned, it also seems downright bizarre to have both teams re-enter the exhibition season over the weekend.

 

Would it make more sense to send three teams over for a week in, say, early May? You'd get Opening Day out of the way, but the disruption would seem like less of a big deal.

A 3 am game means they can wake up and see the end of it. Please explain how thats worse that a 1 pm start in Boston to start the season where the game starts at 10 am local time while everyone is at work and you can't see any of it. Or even a 7 pm Boston start time which means people might get home in time to catch the last two innings.

 

[jason21nl]

again, I don't care if they play over seas, just not opening day.

Yeah cause it is ours and we are Americans! I mean it is not like the Tour de France ever started in London......

Opening day will still be opening day 2-3 games in Tokyo really change nothing. Fans in Oakland will still have time to drink the beers and get the botox done in parking lot for their first home game.

Damn straight. I am American and I want MLB to have It's opening day in America. I don't care about the Tour de France, I care about baseball. Its not about drinking bears and botox its about having a real opening day in America. Sure Oakland will have its own "opening day" but technically they have already had 2 "home" games. You'll never see the NFL put their opening day in another country people would fly off the handle.

 

and come on, there is a big difference between 3am and 10am for Oakland fans. 3am you're sleeping, 10 am you can listen to it on the radio, catch it on the tv you have more options. Unless you have nothing going on the next day, getting up at 3 am is a bunch of crap.

 

I'm done with this thread, it just keeps pissing me off even more. People would have different views if it was the Crew playing and not Boston and Oakland.

[brewizard]

This isn't true. I apologize for being curt, but I haven't ever seen a highlight where they don't mention the score or flash it on the screen

 

No problem. Maybe it was me, but I never saw the scores. Anywhere. It was surprising to me. But then, a lot of things in Japan surprised me.

[Brewtacular]

Damn straight. I am American and I want MLB to have It's opening day in America. I don't care about the Tour de France, I care about baseball.

 

Well queue up the mindless U-S-A chant!

 

Apparently, the concept of opening day is limited to the actual first moment a game begins. Too bad we don't get to participate in opening day this year. What does it matter if Oak/Bos have 2 games in Japan? They will still have an opening day.

[ccbrew]

Damn straight. I am American and I want MLB to have It's opening day in America.

 

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.

 

Anyways, tickets for the regular season opener were hard to come by and pretty pricey, but I made it to the exhibition game between the Red Sox and the Hanshin Tigers. It's hard to take pictures from the second to last row in the upper deck (approx price: $30), but..Lew Ford sighting!

 

 

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc117/ccbrew/P1010021.jpg

[JimH5]

I thought it was a terrific idea, and I'd like to see MLB do more in bringing the game to global markets.

 

The fact is, fewer and fewer American kids are playing organized baseball. The best athletes are going to football and basketball.

 

And MLB is hardly the National Pastime anymore. The NFL is clearly the most popular sport, with more interest than all the other sports combined.

 

The World Baseball Classic was great and will be great again, and playing league games across the globe, to excited paying fans is a good thing.