Editing the quote is your friend.
Kerry Wood just pitched a nice ninth inning in Las Vegas topping 100 mph on a slightly dubious gun. The WGN gun had him at a still impressive 95-96 mph. His command was good and he fielded a comebacker barehanded to turn a 1-6-3 double play. He didn’t appear to be overthrowing and his mechanics looked smooth.
It warms my Cubbie-heart to see it. He’s one of ours.
The Dodgers and Padres did do an exhibition game in Beijing this year, so they’re not ignoring that market.
The thing is, by playing in Japan, they’re not selling baseball, they’re selling American Major League Baseball, which has become incredibly popular in the last decade as more Japanese players (including superstars like Ichiro, Matsui and Matsuzaka) start going over. NHK (the national public network) now broadcasts a huge number of MLB season games, plus all the post-season games, and pays a hell of a lot to do it. MLB-branded goods are also seeing big sales here. Also, Ricoh paid a pretty big sum to bring the teams here. I don’t know exactly how much, but the game was officially called “The Ricoh Japan Opening Series 2008”. There’s also the advantage of not having to modify the stadiums to have an MLB-regulation game.
Tickets for the opening game sold out completely, and the TV ratings share was even higher than for the opening game of the Tokyo Giants (cite).