Contradicting Views of the World

The Oakland Athletics and the Boston Red Sox are probably asleep right now, still trying to get over their jet-lag. They just participated in the season's first official games, and they traveled all the way to the Japan to do so.

On a side note: Am I alone in thinking it is ridiculous to have three different "Opening Days?" First, the Opening Series in Japan. Then there's the traditional Opening Day, which will be this Monday, March 31. There's also the special Sunday-before-Opening-Day Opening Night on ESPN that they added a few years ago. Can we please just pick one Opening, and hold everyone to it? It was a glorious thing to think that every team in Major League Baseball was playing it's first game of the season on the same afternoon. Everyone started fresh, 0-0. Now, at least for the A's and Sox, they both have one win, one loss, and a little charter flight hangover.

Multiple openings aside, I'm growing tired of every major sport's attempt to globalize their game. Major League Baseball in Tokyo, the National Football League in Amsterdam, the National Basketball Association in Beijing. Do we have to globalize everything? They already have McDonald's, and Coca-Cola, isn't that enough? Oh well. Call me an ethnocentric jingoist if you want. It's one thing to play an exhibition, where the game doesn't actually count. But it just doesn't seem fair to make these players travel that far to play in a meaningful game. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure why this bugs me. It just doesn't sit right.

And now for the contradiction. Oh ye hypocrite.

The venues, dates, and match-ups were recently announced for the 2009 World Baseball Classic. The inaugural World Baseball Classic (WBC) was tremendous. Japan came out on top, but it was a great ride. I loved it, and I'm already excited about the second WBC. For me, it's the international competition of the FIFA World Cup coupled with the greatest game of all, baseball. How could it go wrong? The WBC is a great concept that will only gain more and more notoriety as the years go by.

Anyway, the season has "officially" began, so to speak, with the A's and the defending World Champion Red Sox. Speaking of "World" Championships, how long before we see either the title changed to something like "National Champions," or the MLB champs taking their crown on the road (and then to the skies) to face the champs from Japan, Korea, Cuba, or the Dominican Republic to try to gain the title of World Champs?