Pic of the Week

Players from the Mariners and Athletics made a trip to
the tsunami zone last week to do baseball clinics, but
the real hit with the kids was apparently the A's
mascot, Stomper.

It is always a bit discombobulating to have "real" games played on the other side of the world about a week before the rest of U.S. baseball starts its regular season. Call it the irregular regular season. (And then the two teams come back to the States for more spring training.)

The two games played in Japan last week by Seattle and Oakland seemed even more distant because, unlike the previous seasons when major league teams went to Japan to play games that count, they weren't telecast back home on ESPN.

Why? Well, the previous excursions have tended to involve teams like the Red Sox and Yankees. Seattle and Oakland aren't major ratings draws — and let's face it, sending a broadcast team to Japan sin't cheap.

These games weren't about the American market anyway. They were about the Asian market, and particularly Japan.