For one of the worst marketed sports in North America, Major League Baseball decided to have two teams start their regular season a week before everyone else and not many knew about it. The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers played in Seoul, South Korea this past week in a two-game series to kick off the 2024 MLB season.
While the Padres and Dodgers series marked the first regular season games played in Korea, MLB has been doing this for decades. The Mets and Padres played each other in Mexico back in 1996. Every four years between 2000 and 2012, MLB had a team start the year in Japan. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks played games in Australia in 2014. The Red Sox and Yankees played the first series in London in 2019. We’re not even done with international games this season; as we’re getting a Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies Mexico City game in April and a Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets London series in June.
The issue that I have with this is that I’d prefer to see teams start the year at their own ballparks.
Opening Day is one of the best things about this sport. You’re forcing fans of these home teams to miss out on seeing their teams’ first meaningful games in months so MLB can grow their international audience. To me, making it so much harder for diehard fans to watch their team play is disrespectful to those who have been lifelong fans. This hurts regular fans of the game. With the time zone differences, it made it difficult for most in North America to get up and watch the start of the regular season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a completely rebuilt team, highlighted with the addition of superstar Shohei Ohtani. Los Angeles also signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, one of the most hyped up international free agents in recent history. Both made their regular season debut at 6 a.m. EST, or 3 a.m. PST. These games, by the way, were played during the middle of the week on a Wednesday and Thursday. Fans across several teams were excited to watch Ohtani’s Dodger debut and Yamamoto’s first start, but the time difference hindered the ability to do so.
Another odd thing was that both teams then proceeded to return back to their spring training facilities and play another week of preseason games, despite having already made two regular season appearances. This was highlighted by some sloppy play by both teams during this series, neither of them looked to be in regular season form.
Of course, the main objective of these international series is to grow the game and build it into a global platform, which is definitely important. These series allow players to connect and grow fans all across the world, which any baseball fan should want. It’s also a great experience for the players. In this series alone, Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim had a little bit of a homecoming as the South Korean native had a chance to play in front of his home country. The Red Sox and Rays just played a pair of Spring Training games in the Dominican Republic which allowed players like Rafael Devers, Brayan Bello and Amed Rosario to have that same experience. International games are great for the game of baseball, for the players and the fans, but taking away Opening Day from home crowds doesn’t sit right with me.
The sport has faced some serious rejuvenation over the past few seasons. With games going by quicker due to rule changes, viewership and attendance have increased. Major League Baseball has (surprisingly) done really good things for the sport as of late, but still has room to do even better.
Opening Day is sacred to the game, and I want fans to be able to share that experience with the team. It’s the balancing act of growing the game and embracing those who’ve been behind you that makes it hard. MLB understands that you cannot force two teams to fly themselves to another country during the middle of the season with that severe of a time zone difference, so having it put at the beginning of the year makes sense. It’s nearly impossible to build a schedule that allows a team to start at home then travel to another country halfway across the world to play a two-game set because of how it affects the players.
This forces MLB to choose between these two; home crowds or growing the game. As much as it hurts me to say, I think they should pick growing the game. For those who were able to watch, the crowds made the atmosphere great for both games. That’s something that the sport desperately needs, getting people all around the world invested in its product.