MLB is going global this spring. Baseball announced
yesterday that the Padres and the Dodgers will be playing two games in Beijing,
China (March 15 and 16). They will be playing in the stadium that will be used
in the 2008 Olympics. The Red Sox and Athletics will be opening the season in a
two game set in Tokyo. Each team will also have two Spring Training games
against Japanese teams.
Baseball announced in October that they will
introduce a program called “Play Ball” in China that opens Baseball camps for
Chinese children in Elementary schools. More information on that program can be
found here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071010&content_id=2259940&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
In other international baseball news, the Israel Baseball
League held tryouts for a second year in Miami on December 23rd,
2007. According to their website, http://www.israelbaseballleague.com,
mostly college players and former minor leagues participated in the tryouts.
They will have two more this offseason in the Dominican Republic and LA. They
also announced that they are moving the Petach Tikva Pioneers to Jerusalem this
year (becoming the Jerusalem Lions).
In case you are wondering, the first game
next season is on June 22nd, and it features Art Shamsky’s Modi’in
Miracles against the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox.
