PHOENIX -- Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball are joining forces again this fall to stage the bi-annual Major League All-Star tour of Japan from Nov. 2-8.
The tour, which usually traverses the country, has been shortened this year to six games and two stops -- four games will be played in Tokyo Dome and two in Osaka Dome. It is to be sponsored by Yomiuri, owner of the Tokyo-based Giants and one of the largest media companies in the world. The MLB team could again include Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who hasn't played on the tour since 2002, and is highly popular in Japan.
As has been custom when Yomiuri hosts the event, the initial game will be an exhibition between the Giants and the MLB All-Stars in Tokyo Dome. This year, that game will be followed by a five-game series pitting the MLB Stars against an All-Star team from the Japan leagues.
Although the MLB team is usually successful during these tours, there is an added attraction this year because Team Japan, led by Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki but made up mostly of stars from NPB, defeated Cuba this past March to win the first World Baseball Classic title. Meanwhile, the U.S., made up entirely of Major Leaguers, was eliminated in the second round.
Bonds, now 42, didn't play for Team USA this year because he was using Spring Training to begin his comeback from three surgeries on his right knee that forced him to miss all except 14 games during the 2005 season. He has since recovered sufficiently to hit 21 homers this season, including No. 715 this past May 28, which pushed him past Babe Ruth into second on MLB's all-time list. He currently has 729, four short of Hank Aaron's National League record of 733 and 26 behind the Hammer's MLB mark of 755.
Japan's Sadaharu Oh holds the overall all-time home run record with 868, all with the Tokyo Giants. Oh, 65, managed the Japan team that won the Classic.
It is the contention of Japan's players' union that the tour has now been usurped by the World Baseball Classic and has begun to outlive its usefulness. The Classic is scheduled to be played again in 2009 and every four years after that.
During recent steering committee meetings, Japan representatives have suggested a change in the Classic schedule with the first round to be played in November and the final two rounds to be played the following March.
Although Commissioner Bud Selig said he would be open to any suggestions, he indicated that he would rather see the tournament start a week later in Spring Training to give competing teams more of a chance to get into shape. This year's tournament ran from March 3-20, and the earliest first-round games were played in Japan.
MLB officials believe that the Japan tour, which has been played in even-numbered years, complements the Classic and remains a major ingredient in the continued international growth of the sport.
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