A's, Mariners to open season in Japan

It's no mystery why the Seattle Mariners are the most popular major league team in Japan. AP

IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Oakland and Seattle will become the second pair of major league teams to open the season in Japan, playing a two-game series next March in Tokyo.

Under the plan announced Wednesday by baseball commissioner Bud Selig, the major league teams will play split doubleheaders on March 22 and 23 at the Tokyo Dome against the Yomiuri Giants and the Seibu Lions, who met in this year's Japan Series.

The Mariners and Athletics, who had been scheduled to open against each other in Oakland, will then play each other the following two days, then return to the United States, where most teams are scheduled to open March 31.

In 2000, the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs played the first regular-season games in Japan, splitting a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome.

"The clubs are happy," Selig said. "They wanted to go."

Seattle's principal owner, Hiroshi Yamauchi, is Japanese, and the Mariners' roster includes three Japanese players: 2001 AL MVP and AL Rookie of the Year Ichiro Suzuki, 2000 AL Rookie of the Year Kazuhiro Sasaki and Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

Baseball's other international openers were in 1999, when San Diego played Colorado at Monterrey, Mexico, and 2001, when Texas and Toronto played at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Selig also said 22 of the Expos' 81 home games next year would be shifted from Montreal's Olympic Stadium to San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Approval from the players' association is needed for the games in Japan and Puerto Rico.

Baseball also is forming a marketing task force that will examine issues such as whether the sport should have its own World Cup, in which players compete for national teams rather than clubs.

 

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