In an earlier post, Scott Willis added to the chorus of people complaining that the Oakland Athletics’ FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON wasn’t televised live from Japan early Wednesday morning.
Regardless of the audience size, to have a Major League team’s Opening Day shown on tape delay is insulting to the fans of that team, and A’s fans have suffered more than their fair share of “front burner” insults from Bud Selig and Co.
Luckily, MLB (with a little prodding, no doubt) has realized this. From the San Jose Mercury News:
The A’s second game against the Mariners in Tokyo, scheduled for 2 a.m. PDT Thursday morning, will now be shown on live TV, the A’s announced Wednesday morning.
MLB Network will lift the local blackout and show the game live at 2 a.m. Thursday. The second game of the A’s-Mariners series will also be replayed on MLB Network at 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday.
The idea that local blackout rules stretch to Tokyo, Japan is unbelievable. Ludicrous. Shocking. Predictable.
At least they fixed the mistake. Who needs sleep, right? When you get the chance to stay up into the early hours (first pitch is 2:10 am, PDT) to watch Bartolo Colon, you have to take advantage.
By the way, I’m not sure if both teams were trying to impress the Japanese fans with their blazing speed, but last night’s pitchers’ duel also doubled as a stolen base competition. Jemile Weeks (one of the most intriguing players on either side of the Bay, along with Yoenis Cespedes, Manny Ramirez, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain and Buster Posey) and Cliff Pennington stole a base apiece, while Collin “Don’t call me ‘The Herd'” Cowgill was thrown out. For Seattle, Dustin Ackley (who had a hell of a game, with a HR early and an RBI single in the 11th) and Michael Saunders stole second successfully, while Brendan Ryan was caught stealing.
