Mariners vs Athletics in Japan

True! The Oakland A's Official Website also says the same! The games in Japan will be credited toward Oakland Coliseum home games. The Coliseum can seat as much as 52,000 but in regular games, seating usually reaches no more than 44,000.

The Coliseum is considered the best pitcher's ballpark in Major League Baseball because of the shadow effects towards the batter's eye view (since the Coliseum is an outdoor/natural grass ballpark) and the enormous foul territory (larger than of ANY Major League ballpark.) In comparison, what type of ballpark is the Tokyo Dome? Is the pitcher favored? or the hitter?

As for the 2 teams to play, both Seattle and Oakland should be aware that prospective free agents may take a peak.

What is questionable is how Japanese players are not talking about wanting to join San Diego or Oakland. San Diego is close to Los Angeles. Oakland is across the bay from San Francisco.

Both teams have been in playoff contention since 2000. The San Francisco Giants still have not proven they can win a World Series title while the Oakland A's have won 4 World Series titles. (The last one was against the Giants in 1989.) Recently, the A's held the lead in head-to-head games against the Giants, even WITH Barry Bonds.

> The Coliseum is considered the best pitcher's
> ballpark in Major League Baseball because of the
> shadow effects towards the batter's eye view (since
> the Coliseum is an outdoor/natural grass ballpark)
> and the enormous foul territory (larger than of ANY
> Major League ballpark.) In comparison, what type of
> ballpark is the Tokyo Dome? Is the pitcher favored?
> or the hitter?

The Tokyo Dome is unequivocably a hitters park, compared to MLB stadiums. It is very similar to the Metrodome (designed by the same people) and has very shallow power alleys.

> What is questionable is how Japanese players are not
> talking about wanting to join San Diego or Oakland.
> San Diego is close to Los Angeles. Oakland is across
> the bay from San Francisco.

It's not questionable at all. Japanese players in general have never talked about wanting to join any specific team. Irabu (with the Yankees) and Ishii (with the Dodgers) are the only ones that come to mind. Free agents talk with the teams that make them offers, as do those being posted. Ichiro was happy to go to Seattle because he was familiar with them, but he was willing to go to any team. Sasaki visited many teams, but let his agent handle everything concerning the teams.

As for Oakland, there's a funny story about that. When Shigetoshi Hasegawa was coming to the Majors, he talked with a number of teams, including the Dodgers, the Angels, and the A's. The A's showed him a locker made up with his name on it right next to Mark McGwire's. They told him, "Mark says he'd like to go golfing with you sometime." Hasegawa basically thought, "Yeah, right. This has to be the hard sell..." Eventually, he decided to go with the Angels. A year later, some Angels players were talking with some A's players before a game, and McGwire and Hasegawa were there. McGwire turned to Hasegawa and said, "Say, weren't you supposed to come to Oakland? I was looking forward to playing some golf!"

At any rate, the only reason the Padres and the A's aren't making inroads into Japan and Asia, it is because they haven't tried to lately. If they made some decent offers to Japanese players, I'm sure many would be willing to play for them.