One game down, 2429 to go. The Seattle Mariners came out on top of the Oakland Athletics in the Major League Baseball season opener in Tokyo overnight 3-1 in an extra-innings affair.
With the second and final game of their two-game set tonight, both sides will return to America before resuming regular season play next week.
For Australians the brief series was a chance to see MLB action in a prime time slot, which offers the potential for new fans of the game.
But what do we need to capitalise on these new fans and bring the game the prominence it deserves in an already sports mad country?
We need our own Ichiro Suzuki.
For those who don’t know, Ichiro became the first Japanese-born position player to play in the Major League, and has since become one of the faces of the game. He holds the outstanding distinction of being the only player in the history of baseball to have ten consecutive 200 hit seasons.
To have an Australian player become one of the faces of the league would offer the MLB the incentive that they would need to bring a series to Australia.
Who is the right player for the role? The obvious choice is a position player, as unfortunately (and no disrespect to) pitchers, not playing every day makes it tough for them.
This is a shame given the depth of Australian pitching in the bigs, including Josh Spence, Rich Thompson, Shane Lindsay, and as many are predicting, Dan McGrath.
The fact that Luke Hughes is 27 years of age is something of a concern, as he is our biggest name at the moment. He probably doesn’t have the time left in his career to make a lasting impact on the majors.
I’m not going to be as brave as to suggest who I think could be the one who changes everything, but I will say that it all starts at home.
If you haven’t been to an ABL game you are being denied one of the greatest sporting pleasures in Australia.
While it isn’t MLB quality, according to many players who have played in the league it floats between AA and AAA.
Furthermore fans have the opportunity to be closer to the action that at any other sport in Australia, and the level of professionalism shown by the players when they interact with the fans is something that major sports could learn from.
Without the grassroots support of the ABL there is no reason for the MLB to bring a series to Australia, so to all of the MLB fans here (and the television ratings and MLBAM data suggests there are plenty), if you haven’t embraced the ABL, what are you waiting for?
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