The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will kick off the 2012 MLB regular season in Tokyo on Wednesday, March 28th at 6:10 AM EST.
The AL West division rivals have spent the last few days in Japan, hosting baseball clinics, visiting tsunami relief sites and playing exhibition matches against Japanese ball clubs.
The international tours for the M’s and A’s will culminate in a two-game series that will mark the beginning of the regular season. The A’s are listed as the home team, though there obviously isn’t any home-field advantage for either club.
While these two teams aren’t the best that the MLB has to offer, they do generate quite a lot of buzz in Japan due to the presence of countrymen Hisashi Iwakuma, Munenori Kawasaki, Kurt Suzuki and most of all Ichiro Suzuki, who is idolized in his home country.
Both teams are looking to improve a bit from last year with key additions including Jesus Montero for the Mariners and Yoenis Cespedes for the Athletics.
This should be an exciting game to watch due to the supercharged atmosphere that the Tokyo Dome and its devoted fans help to create.
Since the game is being played in Japan, it starts at 7:10 PM JST, which unfortunately translates into 6:10 AM for East coasters and 3:10 AM for West coasters. It’ll be a drag to get up early, but don’t let timing prevent you from tuning in to the MLB 2012 season opener!
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