The American Major League Baseball (MLB) teams Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics (A’s) are here in Tokyo, Japan now to play a total of six pre-season games at the Tokyo Dome.
They’re scheduled to play two games against each other on 2012 March 28th and 29th.
But before those games, the two American teams will play games against the Japanese baseball teams the Tokyo Giants and the (Osaka) Hanshin Tigers.
Today the Seattle Mariners played the Hanshin Tigers and lost.
Ichiro (Suzuki) and the Seattle Mariners lost to the Hanshin Tigers in the Tokyo Dome today.
And then, after that game, the Oakland A’s played the Tokyo Giants and won.
This was third-generation Japanese, Ken Suzuki's (of the Oakland A's) first trip to Japan.
The A's beat the Tokyo Giants in today's game.
Tomorrow, the two Japanese teams and the two American teams will change opponents (it will be Oakland A’s vs Hanshin Tigers and then the Seattle Mariners vs Tokyo Giants).
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(Images in this post are from SeattlePi.com, VancouverSun.com, and 読売新聞.co.jp).
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Tokyo Five 
Ichiro is an amazing ballplayer. He will one day be inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Guaranteed.
I always hoped that Major League Baseball would expand into Japan… it would make sense in so many ways. The only drawback would be the traveling back and forth from the U.S. to Japan… which could dampen “the bottom line” on the profit margin. (In my opinion anyhow). 🙂
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>I always hoped that Major League Baseball would expand into Japan…
If not that, at least the “World Series” championship games should include teams from more than America and Canada.
Japanese, Cuban and other teams from “baseball loving” countries should be included.
>The only drawback would be the traveling back and forth from the U.S. to Japan…
When American baseball or football teams come to Japan to play pre-season games in Tokyo, sometimes a player or two refuses to come for fear that the jet-lag will affect their performance in “real” games.
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