Opening Day?

The Mariners/Athletics opened the 2012 regular season this morning in Tokyo, Japan. Two west coast teams, still the game began at 3AM Pacific. What is Major League Baseball thinking? Japan, 16 hours ahead of the west coast, began the game at 7PM Wednesday evening local time. Why could they not wait until 11AM Saturday in Tokyo so the game could be broadcast in Seattle or Oakland at 7PM Friday? Just play a two game series Saturday/Sunday. I always like to see the first pitch of the season but when my alarm went off this AM, I just said "Hell, no" and went back to bed.

Full disclosure, I'm all for playing a handful of regular season games in foreign countries.

[rjackson44]

i agree ,seattle wom 3 to one over oakland ...

[SmokyBurgess]

MLB should bring Opening Day back to Cincinnati ...in the afternoon! Too bad money trumps tradition.

[timzcardz]

Originally Posted by pariah1107

Full disclosure, I'm all for playing a handful of regular season games in foreign countries.

I have no real feelings about them playing games oversees, but I imagine that it is good for the sport.

However, I think that opening the season doing so is wrong.

I'll admit that I am not sure logistically how else it would make sense, unless doing so concurrently with the All-Star break.

Well the Mariners/Athletics schedule for these opening series games is brutally strange:

March 28-29: Two game regular season opening series in Tokyo v. A's
March 31-April 4: Five Cactus league exhibitions in Arizona
April 4-5: Two game regular season "opener" in Oakland

Why? Seattle already travels more than any team in the league. That's more miles than St. Louis will travel in the first month of the season, for ONE series!

Has any regular season began, then a team reverts to spring training games only to begin the season again? Has this happened before?