This year, the MLB brought a roster of 29 players overseas to play in the Japan series, something they last did in 2006. The Japan series is where the MLB brings over a roster of the best that would like to participate to Japan to take on the best teams Japan has to offer.
This team included stars like Jose Altuve, Yasiel Puig, and Robinson Cano. This team also brought over a few players that have most recently played in the World Series a few weeks ago like Salvador Perez, Alcides Escobar, and Jeremy Guthrie. They traveled to play in Osaka, Tokyo, Sapporo, and Okinawa.
Confetti rained down from the balconies in San Francisco. Large text on the Kauffman Stadium jumbotron flashed “Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants: 2014 World Series Champs”. The celebrations ensued and it seemed as if the “Boys of Summer” had packed their bags to say goodbye to another season of baseball. Or had they?
This year, the MLB brought a roster of 29 players overseas to play in the Japan series, something they last did in 2006. The Japan series is where the MLB brings over a roster of the best that would like to participate in Japan to take on the best teams Japan has to offer.
This team included stars like Jose Altuve, Yasiel Puig, and Robinson Cano. This team also brought over a few players that have most recently played in the World Series a few weeks ago like Salvador Perez, Alcides Escobar, and Jeremy Guthrie. They traveled to play in Osaka, Tokyo, Sapporo, and Okinawa.
The interest in this series was incredible overseas. The Japanese are already big fans of the sport, and they provided a consistently large attendance to these games to root for their Japanese baseball teams as they took on the MLB All Stars.
The MLB unfortunately struggled in these games, only winning three games and losing four. This is unlike the World Baseball Classic, which is comparative to the World Cup in soccer, where instead of having teams from all over the world go at it, this is just an MLB team, filled with both American and international players, taking on teams from the Japan league.
CHS spanish teacher Mr. Bush, who is also the coach of the CHS varsity baseball team, says that the issue with doing these tournaments is the timing of it. If you do a series like this right after the World Series, then not very many players would like to play and rather prefer resting after a long season. Whereas for the World Baseball Classic, which happens right before the season during Spring Training, players are afraid of risking injury and are not used to seeing some of the action they see in these games.
Despite these issues, Mr. Bush still likes the idea, the revenue, and interest it brings to the sport. Another benefit this has is that MLB scouts have an idea of how international talent can compete against MLB talent. Players on a consistent basis leave Japan and declare themselves MLB free agents, and the one issue for scouts is finding out how they will be able to handle the MLB talent. A series like this takes out the feeling of guessing how a player will perform.
Baseball isn’t the only sport to recently do this. The NFL has played three games in the United Kingdom this year and owners have been interested in bringing an NFL franchise to the United Kingdom. The NBA has also played six games this year in different international locations, as part of their NBA Global Games campaign.
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