World Showcase Gone Awry
Tonight, Major League Baseball went back in time and brought 46,121 fans to Montreal, Quebec. They came to see an exhibition game that felt more like a playoff game between Canada's team, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Montreal Expos' most celebrated brothers, the New York Mets.
Tonight was Opening Day 10 years too late in a city that deserved a championship in 1994, and deserved anything but what it got ten years later. Now, 20 years removed from their glorious dream season that wasn't, Major League Baseball came back to pay tribute. They returned to the scene of the crime, two years tardy for the late Gary Carter.
For years, Expos fans came to Olympic Stadium disguised as empty seats. Tonight, it was an international holiday. A capacity crowd returned to The Big O ready to forgive and primed to celebrate the game, because they were just happy to be there again. They shamed every other team's fanbase with their fervor and were rewarded with an absolute classic that, sadly, didn't count in the standings.
While absence makes the heart grow fonder in French Canada, down under, the lack of the North American game was recently met with indifference by everyone except for the powers-that-be. People in Japan, Australia, and/or China do not care if the games count. It’s an exhibition to them and should be treated as such.
There is no history in Sydney. There's history in Montreal. In Canada, a game that didn't count was contested as if it did and treated as such by the fans. In Sydney, the opposite was true. 38,266 people saw two teams with no connection to the host city play a game they wish they hadn't played.
Of course, the irony is that MLB took a team away from the people that cared. Meanwhile, they're trying to shove it down the throats of people half a world away who don't care. By parading in Asia and Oceania, all MLB is doing is penalizing the teams who are unlucky enough to be chosen to play.
Maybe a guy like Clayton Kershaw needs the extra week to strength his arm and improve his stamina. After all, who wants to see the NL’s best pitcher get hurt while trying to force-feed his body and his mind in mid-March?
Yes, Kershaw may not be ready for Opening Day, which only lends itself to more confusion. Kershaw is questionable for the start of the season, even though technically he already started the season opener. Nonetheless, he is questionable for Opening Day… which technically already happened BEFORE Opening Day!
Is it really worth it to play real games in Australia or Japan? Better yet, is it really worth it to play ANY games there? Last I checked, the Orix Blue Wave and the Yomiuri Giants weren’t getting ready to start their season at Yankee Stadium, a week before the rest of Japan’s baseball teams. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing any of Japan’s baseball teams playing in North America, ever. I'm thinking our game doesn't work anywhere except on the home front.
Two years ago, I brazenly suggested that the Mets move their minor league team from Las Vegas to Montreal. It's not only logistically more appealing, but if tonight was any indication, it would appeal to the masses north of the border.
Baseball needs to shelf its two-game series between two random teams in a faraway land. There's still an international buzz to be explored in a city that once loved our newly-international pastime.
Tonight was Opening Day 10 years too late in a city that deserved a championship in 1994, and deserved anything but what it got ten years later. Now, 20 years removed from their glorious dream season that wasn't, Major League Baseball came back to pay tribute. They returned to the scene of the crime, two years tardy for the late Gary Carter.
For years, Expos fans came to Olympic Stadium disguised as empty seats. Tonight, it was an international holiday. A capacity crowd returned to The Big O ready to forgive and primed to celebrate the game, because they were just happy to be there again. They shamed every other team's fanbase with their fervor and were rewarded with an absolute classic that, sadly, didn't count in the standings.
While absence makes the heart grow fonder in French Canada, down under, the lack of the North American game was recently met with indifference by everyone except for the powers-that-be. People in Japan, Australia, and/or China do not care if the games count. It’s an exhibition to them and should be treated as such.
There is no history in Sydney. There's history in Montreal. In Canada, a game that didn't count was contested as if it did and treated as such by the fans. In Sydney, the opposite was true. 38,266 people saw two teams with no connection to the host city play a game they wish they hadn't played.
Of course, the irony is that MLB took a team away from the people that cared. Meanwhile, they're trying to shove it down the throats of people half a world away who don't care. By parading in Asia and Oceania, all MLB is doing is penalizing the teams who are unlucky enough to be chosen to play.
Maybe a guy like Clayton Kershaw needs the extra week to strength his arm and improve his stamina. After all, who wants to see the NL’s best pitcher get hurt while trying to force-feed his body and his mind in mid-March?
Yes, Kershaw may not be ready for Opening Day, which only lends itself to more confusion. Kershaw is questionable for the start of the season, even though technically he already started the season opener. Nonetheless, he is questionable for Opening Day… which technically already happened BEFORE Opening Day!
Is it really worth it to play real games in Australia or Japan? Better yet, is it really worth it to play ANY games there? Last I checked, the Orix Blue Wave and the Yomiuri Giants weren’t getting ready to start their season at Yankee Stadium, a week before the rest of Japan’s baseball teams. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing any of Japan’s baseball teams playing in North America, ever. I'm thinking our game doesn't work anywhere except on the home front.
Two years ago, I brazenly suggested that the Mets move their minor league team from Las Vegas to Montreal. It's not only logistically more appealing, but if tonight was any indication, it would appeal to the masses north of the border.
Baseball needs to shelf its two-game series between two random teams in a faraway land. There's still an international buzz to be explored in a city that once loved our newly-international pastime.
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