Covering the Yankees-Devil Rays series at the Tokyo Dome, back in 2004, ranks as one of my professional highlights. It wasn't just the two games. It was spending a whole week in Japan.
I got to ride a black hawk chopper with Joe Torre, Brian Cashman and others _ remember Gabe White? He helped me with my seat belt _ after a Yankees contingent visited this place to spread good will. I also visited Hideki Matsui's childhood home, which is now a museum, in Ishikawa.
At the games themselves, guess which Yankee generated the second-most buzz, after Matsui? Not Derek Jeter, not Alex Rodriguez, not Gary Sheffield. It was Mariano Rivera. Every cut fastball produced an "Oooh!" or an "Ahhh!" It was truly an amazing cultural convergence.
Perhaps that first-hand experience explains why I wasn't offended by the manner in which baseball kicked off its 2008 schedule, with the Red Sox and A's splitting a pair in Tokyo. Yes, the games occurred before the conclusion of the Grapefruit League and Cactus League schedules, and yes, they started at 6 a.m. here on the East Coast.
But I'd ask you to take a step back and think globally. Contemplate what it means to the great fans of Japan to host 3 MLB openers over the last nine seasons (the Mets and Cubs played in the inaugural series, back in 2000). Realize the huge marketing potential that Asia holds for MLB. It seems that the Red Sox fans in Boston made the best of a unique situation, much as the Mets fans did in 2000 and Yankees fans in 2004.
It's a great thing for baseball to expand its brand, particularly in Asia, which has such a rich baseball history of its own. Maybe you do have to be there to fully appreciate it. In which case, I'd ask you to trust me when I tell that the Japan trip is a wonderful event.
Comments (13)
there was an article from "Wall Street Journal" summarised on
thesportseconomist.com website about the revenues these games have generated. From 2000 the number of licensees has gone from 6 to 61. Revenue has tripled to $103.7 million. Baseball signed a six year deal with advertising giant Dentsu, Inc worth an estimated $235 million, three times the prevoius figure. All revenues are divided equally among all 30 teams.
There is also a mention the most popular soccer/football league, the English Premiere is considering adding a 39th game for all 20 teams to be played overseas to generate more revenue. If the 21st century is "the asia Century" as so many believe, doesn't it behoove
baseball to try to compete to avoid ending up a backwater sport with limited revenue and desire by youth to become players or fans?
There are some silly aspects to this, such as both teams resuming exhibition games with the regular season begining. But baseball hurt itself in the past by not making TV a high priority (Ford Frick did not want the home viewer to have a better seat than the worst seat in the ballpark) and failing to keep interest in the African-American community high. Open wheel racing for years made all kinds of blunders and has fallen way behind the sleepk PR machine of NASCAR. If you are not moving forward, you are going backwards.
Very insightful comments, Mr. Davidoff and Mr, Clark, and thanks Mr. Davidoff for your great blog. I believe the marketing of MLB in Asia is very constructive and long-term endeavor. However, what concerns me is the waning interest among American youngsters, particularly African American young people toward baseball. I think MLB needs to concentrate resources as well toward the marketing of baseball here in the United States, particularly to Americans aged 25 or younger.
I am only 35 and while growing up in New Jersey, my friends and I ate, slept, and breathed baseball. Now, I have been residing and working as a teacher in Orlando, Florida for the past ten years, and most kids here in Florida could care less( even when the Marlins knocked out the Yankees in the 2003 World Series) about baseball. The only real sports these kids may show a passing interest in is football and to a lesser extent basketball, with its Hip- Hop Urban marketing scheme and here in the Florida, NASCAR is very popular. Nowadays, kids just seem to be interested in video games, going on the Internet and meeting online pedophiles in chatrooms, getting fat on junkfood and taking part in "effeminate and delinquent pastimes", such as skateboarding.
At what point does MLB destroy the Japanese Leagues by the signing of players to MLB contracts by diluting the product?
As for efforts in the U.S. to encourage African-American kids to play, it has been an abject failure (what else would you expect when Joe Morgan is involved?). There has been a cultural rejection of baseball within the A/A community, and hopefully the new leaders (CC Sabathia and Torii Hunter) can reverse the trend, but let's be realistic.
Demographics will rule the equation, and the A/A community in the US will be dwarfed by the Latin and Asian immigrants and existing residents within a generation. Players from the Dominican and Venezuela fill at least a third of MLB 40 man roster slots for some teams.
It's a shame - baseball led in integration, but this history doesn't help MLB now. Ten years ago, Vince Coleman muttered "don't know no Jackie Robinson". Now a player like Chris Young (Princeton) have a solid knowledge of what happened, as he wrote his thesis on news reporting within the white and black papers on JR.
You bring up a very good point RMT about MLB paving the way for integration and in many ways, now, MLB is a microcosm and the best American sport that reflects our heteregeneous" mleting pot" society, with a mix of Caucuasian, European, Latin American, African American, and Asian players.
Too many young African Americans are indifferent or too obtuse to realize this fact. When teaching American History in high school, in 2001 in a predomoninantly African American neighborhood , I was talking with a few of my students about Barry Bonds and his pursuit of Mark Maguire's single season record of 70 homers set back in 1998 , and one of my students cracked back, "who cares, baseball is a cracker sport and Barry Bonds can't jiggle it like Kobe Bryant" Plus, one of my students thought Barry Bonds was a NASCAR driver. Any people wonder why American students lag behind students in other industrialized countries especially in the categories of Science and Math :(
I quickly pointed out to these students that though MLB was segregated prior to 1947, MLB did integrate before both the NFL and MLB. Furthermore, MLB was ahead of the NFL by 14 years in terms of having African Americans as managers( 1975: Frank Robinson Cleveland Indians manager) whereas Art Shell became the first NFL head coach of the Raiders in 1989.
In terms of media scrutiny, MLB is the "Hillary Clinton" of American sports leagues. Whenever there is a negative attribute (labor work stoppages, or more more recently players found to have used steroids)associated with MLB, it becomes headline front page news, and the sports media and sports talk radio are ready to rip MLB and Commissioner Bud Selig to shreds, and ready to dismiss MLB as a relevant American sports pastime. Nonetheless, the great game of MLB perseveres and continues to prosper with its rich history and wonderful game. That's because unlike the NFL and NBA, MLB is based on substance and not image.
By contrast, the NFL is made of teflon and is the "Barak Obama" of American Sports Leagues. Whenever, its players are committing felonies( i.e. Pacman Jones) or especially its players arecaught using steroids,( including a prominent member of the 19-1 Patriots team who was allowed to play in this year's Super Bowl), you might be lucky to find some minute details about those matters in the back pages of the sports section. Plus, the NFL leadership for a long time knew of its players using steroids back in the 1970s ansd 1980s, yet the media does not hold the NFL accountable in the same degree MLB leadership was during the past six to seven years.
I haven't been a big fan of the games being held in Japan, but you are probably right from a business standpoint.
There isn't a buzz in our schools today about baseball like there was years ago. With a 162 game schedule I don't think it will ever be a strictly corporate game like the NBA is, but it certainly isn't the grassroots game it once was. At least not where I come from.
"Grassroots" nowdays may mean "parents believe their kid will get a scholarship."
The NYTimes did a great series on the odds of getting a scholarship and noted that baseball has the least per school.
Revenue sports like football and basketball get the lion's share of the finances to hand out to kids.
My idea of grassroots is not just kids playing Little League, Babe Ruth League, etc., but playing school yard pick-up games with friends, playing on neighborhood streets, playing in backyards, playing Wiffle ball, staying up late watching games, trading baseball cards, reading baseball stories, etc. You don't see much of that today. I'm a teacher. I know.
OK...here's the politically incorrect rant.
1) I'm not getting any of the money that they are from these Japan trips so I'd rather just have the game in America so I can watch it. It's not like they're deducting it from ticket prices.
As for more blacks in baseball. Really, who cares? As long as they're allowed to play like any other person, thats all I care about. Thank God for how strong Jackie Robinson was but we're in 2008 and blacks, Asiains, Jews, Catholics, whites have all the opportunity in the world to play whatever sport they want. If they choose basketball and football over baseball, so be it. As long as they have the opportunity, which they clearly do.
Lastly, I am against any sort of Affirmitive Action. It's discrimatory to the people more qualified and its beyond insulting to minorities who are basically told, here's a job, its charity because you cant possibly be as good as someone white. That's why I'm against the mandatory interviews to minorities in sports.
Richie, what in the world do your views on affirmative action have to do with baseball games being played in Japan?
Wow, these are generally some of the most sophisticated, while rambling, comments I've ever seen on this blog. Great stuff! But just remember that the ebbs and flows of this sport all come back to money these days, both on the supply side (MLB tapping new and higer-end markets) and on the demand side (communities finding cheaper alternatives to participating in baseball).
This could spell long-term trouble for MLB as the product may ultimately be out of reach for its original fan base, at least for fans who want to attend games live. This phenomenon has happened to soccer in England, in their case helping to fuel bad fan behavior at games. And the season openers in Japan, while a star attraction, have their practical limits to growth such as scheduling conflicts and jet lag. Further, the recession in the U.S. should have a telling impact on MLB in 2008. But we'll see, I could be totally wrong because, as Ken recently said in this blog, baseball simply brings so much joy to people. So maybe there is enough froth to go around and turn the next A-Rod into a Billion-dollar man. Who knows?
The firmly good news is that the days of on-field player discrimination are long over and kids with talent can generally advance to the highest level with the right amount of nurturing.
And, between foreign expansion and steroids controversies, Bud Selig's legacy is sealed: good for financial growth, bad for image and integrity. Can't wait to read HIS book!
Ken, as in many message boards, posters went off in tangents. They were two seperate points. The first one was directed at your blog.
The black baseball comment was directed at RMT and Marcel who went in a giant tangent. My response was to them and not to you. I know its your blog but I do like conversing with other posters...especially someone like RMT who maybe the only person that can quote the Simpsons better than myself.
So to answer your question (Ken) my views on affirmitive action (I made it baseball related) have nothing to do with baseball being played in Japan.
I certainly encourage you to chat with other commenters, Richie. I just thought that was quite a dramatic tangent.
I understand, but they started it!