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Red Sox, A's Japan-bound in 2008
Meeting marks fifth international MLB regular-season opener
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com



NAPLES, Fla. -- Major League Baseball is opening its regular season in
Japan's 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome next March for the third time, it was
announced on Wednesday, with the defending World Series-champion Red
Sox facing the A's.

The five days of festivities include regular-season games between the
two clubs on March 25 and 26, exhibition day-night doubleheaders
against Nippon Professional Baseball teams on March 22 and 23, and an
off-day workout sandwiched in between on March 24.

The announcement coincided with the owners gathering for their final
quarterly meetings of the year on Wednesday and Thursday at a local
resort hotel.

"Opening our regular season in Japan for the third time is another
example of Major League Baseball's commitment to the continued global
growth of the game," Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "We
are extremely excited that the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland
Athletics have accepted our invitation to participate in this
international event and look forward to working again with our
long-time partner, The Yomiuri Shimbun, to bring these games to the
great baseball fans of Japan."

As it has been done in the past, Yomiuri, which owns the Central
League's Giants and is one of the largest media corporations in the
world, will sponsor and host the games in Tokyo Dome.

It's the fifth time MLB is playing its season-opener internationally.
It first happened in 1999, when the Padres opened against the Rockies
at Monterrey, Mexico. But this will be the first time the Red Sox or
A's play regular-season games outside of North America.

The Red Sox, with former Japanese League pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka,
are anticipated to be the principal draw in Tokyo -- much like the
Yankees were in 2004 when former Yomiuri Giants slugger Hideki Matsui
returned for the first time wearing the famous pinstripes.

The Yankees played Tampa Bay there in 2004 and the Mets played the
Cubs in the first Japan opener in 2000.

In 2001, the Blue Jays and Rangers opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
where the Expos also played 22 of their "home games" during each of
the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The Padres and the Mets were the first
teams to play a regular-season series internationally when they met in
Monterrey during the 1996 season.

"On behalf of John Henry, Tom Werner, and the entire ownership and
organization, we are honored to be invited to represent Major League
Baseball, and open the 2008 MLB season in Japan, one of the greatest
baseball nations in the world," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said.

Oakland missed its first Japanese opportunity when a two-game opener
of the 2003 season against the Mariners in Tokyo Dome was canceled
because of the beginning of the war in Iraq.

"The Oakland A's are very excited and honored to be opening the 2008
season in Japan," Michael Crowley, the team's president, said.
"Baseball is truly a game without borders and we are pleased to have
the opportunity to be a part of the game's growth on the international
level."

Both the A's and Red Sox will return to the U.S. to conclude Spring
Training before resuming their regular-season schedules.

Because the second World Baseball Classic is scheduled for March 2009,
MLB officials have been working feverishly for months to set up next
year's Asian extravaganza.

Signs also point to the Padres and Dodgers playing exhibition games in
Beijing, China, on March 15-16, 2008. Beijing will be host to the
Summer Olympics from Aug. 8-24, 2008, and is staging what may be the
final Games' medal competition in two small baseball stadiums outside
the city. Demonstration games were already played there this past
summer and the exhibition games are slated for the larger of the two
facilities, which holds 12,000 people.

It would be the first MLB games of any kind in that country, which
banned baseball during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. But
Japan, which has hosted MLB All-Star tours every other year for
decades and the last time in 2006, is a mainstay.

"We are extremely pleased that the 2008 season will open in Japan,"
said Don Fehr, executive director of the MLB Players Association,
which has partnered with MLB on the recent global expansion. "Japanese
fans will have the opportunity to see two extremely talented teams,
the Red Sox, this year's World Series winners, and the Oakland A's, a
squad that has won its division four out of the last eight years.

"It will also be an opportunity for Major League players to see
firsthand just how enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, Japanese fans are."

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Opening Day is an AMERICAN TRADITION and RIGHT! STOP SELLING US OUT, BUD!