Unhappy Opening Day 2008

What a wierd opening day of baseball for 2008 — the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's in Japan!

I am none of the following:
– an isolationist,
– anti-Japanese,
– against global marketing,
– anti-expansion, or
– a stiff traditionalist who can't accept change (well, maybe I am to some degree)!

It's just IMHO (in my humble opinion) — it's just plain wrong to to open the baseball season in any country other than the U.S. or Canada. Opening Day should be the official inaugeration of Spring and should make you yearn for the smell of freshly mown grass, the sound of the crack of a bat, the warmth of the sun on your face, the sight of the teams running onto the field for a "real" game, and the taste of roasted peanuts followed by a hot dog and later snacking on sunflower seeds with a large Dr. Pepper . . . wait, where was I . . . .

To have Opening Day start at 5:00 in the morning, played by teams on the other side of a very large ocean, no broadcast available on radio, etc. is just frustrating. To make it even more strange, after this initial series, both teams will come back to the states and have additional Spring Training games before the season resumes. This year, I will consider Opening Day to be March 31st when most major league teams take the field for traditional day games to start their season.

Commissioner Selig is now talking about opening future seasons in Europe and other countries. Please, can we all just take a breath and learn from this first and listen to the response from fans like myself. We can all win. Here's a proposal — send two teams to another location like England or Germany but have them play their series after the official Opening Day of most other teams, then give them a break to fly back, rest, and then continue with their season once their series is over. No wierd opening day of the season, but with every other advantage of having teams play meaningful games abroad.