AP photo
Breakfast and baseball: Doris Chin (left), of Medford, Mass., and Anne Devoy, of Somerville, Mass., were among the early risers watching the season-opener at a pub in Boston.

The Major League Baseball season is underway. It began later tonight in Japan with the Boston Red Sox beating the Oakland A’s in extra innings. It was a fairly entertaining start to the season. Did you see it? Did anyone besides me see it? I happened to be at work, so I was up and could watch the last four innings. Otherwise I would’ve missed it.

The game was not without controversy, but it was off-the-field controversy. There are those who don’t like beginning the season a week early in Japan. And I have to say I fall into that category.

Here’s what I don’t like about it: 1) There’s no good reason to play games overseas. How does it help baseball? Exposure? Baseball doesn’t need exposure in Japan. If you want to introduce the game to the world, play it in India, Africa or the Middle East. Play it where they play cricket. 2) The time difference is problematic. Who wants to watch a game at 3 a.m. (or 6 a.m. if you’re on the East Coast)? Even if you live in Hawaii you’re not going to watch the whole game. It ended around 4 a.m. in the Aloha State. And in Japan? There’s an unconfirmed rumor that people at home missed the end of the game because the network broadcasting it cut away for a game show. 3) Spring training is still going on. The A’s and Red Sox are playing for real while the rest of the MLB has another week to loosen up and get in playing shape. 4) It’s unfair to the two teams in Japan (this is an extention of the previous point). If all of MLB were involved, I’d have less of a problem with the idea. Send 10 teams each to Japan, China and Korea. Let them all come home with the same jet lag. If spring training is cut short for it, I’m OK with that, too.

Now the other side of the coin. Here’s what I like about the idea of playing an early series in Japan: 1) It allows people like me who can turn on a TV at work to watch a game in the wee hours of the morning. 2) It’s an early start to the season. This contradicts my earlier arguments, I know. But to be honest, part of me likes that the baseball season has started. Maybe next year the Giants will get to play to Japan.

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