Baseball for breakfast

This morning, or this evening if you happen to live in land of the sun, marked 2008's opening day for Major League Baseball as the defending Champion Boston Red Sox took on the still green Oakland A's in Japan. Which, among other things, shows that we Americans have come a long way in our relationship with the Japanese since Little Boy and Fat Man visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. Yet, the topic has quickly turned to controversy as those of us who were awake at 6:05 AM Eastern Time and 3:05 AM Pacific Time in the land of the free were "forced" to watch America's favorite national pastime open play on the soil of those who claim the bonsai tree. Unfortunately for television ratings, I was not one of those American baseball fanatics that watched the game live. I was, however, one of those casual baseball fans that set an alarm for 6:00 AM and swiftly turned it off and proceeded to sleep in for another few hours before waking up in time to watch the 2:00 PM replay on ESPN2 after "First Take" finished another excruciatingly long show. I enjoyed the game and appreciated the energy from the fans in Japan who were clearly pulling for their native son, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was Boston's starting pitcher and threw a no-decision, as the game was tied 4-4 after Dice-K's kamikaze performance.

What did not thrill me about the game is the fact that it was roughly one week premature of the rest of MLB's opening day, and additionally that the Red Sox will play exhibition games that do not count toward the regular season after already officially beginning their season. It isn't that I don't understand the travel difficulties in flying to Japan and back, or that I don't understand the need to appease some of the most loyal fans globally and not just domestically, as this is actually the third time since 2000 that the MLB season opened in Japan. Really, I am just annoyed that I have to wait another five days to watch a regular season baseball game. This morning's game was a tease; think "morning wood", and will have me checking my fantasy baseball team lineup and unavailable statistics hundreds of times throughout the week, constantly changing and rethinking my roster completely in vain. How could MLB Commissioner Bud Selig do this to the world of fantasy sports? Aren't we more important than the Japanese, for Siddartha Gautama Buddha's sake?

The Red Sox won 6-5 on the strength of a 2-run double and 4RBI performance by Boston's Manny Ramirez, who just so happens to be on my fantasy baseball team. Hmmm...maybe I should drop Ryan Garko and pick up that rookie from Oakland...Ahh! Shame on you Major League Baseball. Shame on you in any language.