MLB Opening Day: Where Did It Go?

I would like to thank Major League Baseball for ruining my life for at least the next two weeks—maybe more.

Thanks to the "bright idea" to bring the league onto a world stage, I missed Opening Day, or as the league is calling it the Opening Series.

And thanks to this "innovation," the opening day for the rest of the league will be downplayed—not because it is not important, but because opening day technically happened a week earlier.

At 6:00 AM Eastern Standard time.

Was it nice ditching class halfway through Wednesday morning to check the box score of the game? Sure it was, despite the fact that I did not start Rich Harden on my fantasy team and he dominated for six innings.

But it's not something I'd make a point of doing on a regular basis.

What's the point of going to Japan anyway? Yes, it is nice to get the worldwide exposure, but Japan already has baseball—ask Ichiro or Hideo Nomo. I'm pretty sure they would know.

Going to China was fine for two reasons.

For one, China has a large amount of untapped talent, and China has the potential to become an influential market, whether it begins with Major League Baseball or not.

It was also an exhibition game.

There were no dramatic 10-inning heroic endings to be missed, no sparkling pitching performances, and the fantasy leagues were not thrown out of whack at all.

Most importantly, the fans didn't miss out.

And isn't that what matters most?

I know tons of diehard baseball fans who would sit down and watch any two teams in the league play each other.

But getting up at 6:00 AM to watch a game, without Dice-K no less? (That was terrible. They should start posting disclaimers.)

And what about Red Sox Nation?

How many Sox fans (who are employed) were willing to get up at that hour to watch the game? And if they did, did they even have the chance to see the entirety of the game?

Unless you get MLB TV and watch it at work or school instead of doing your job, I highly doubt you got to see the game. (Although that's what the Woz does.)

By trying to capitalize on its popularity on other continents, Major League Baseball ignored the one that care the most about.

In Japan, this was just another game showcasing the stars they loved—like the series they play against the MLB each year.

But for us here in North America, this is a special event that happens only once a year.

It's really too bad we missed it.

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