Sorry for the overused cliche in the headline. The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Boston has reached an agreement to play an “official” Major League game in Sydney. “Official” could mean a regular season game, or it could just mean an exhibition sanctioned by the MLB. Whatever the case, the game would take place in late March and is a great way to expand baseball’s international presence. As for the team itself, the Red Sox are a popular team down under and the club has had several Australian prospects and personnel come through the organization in recent years.
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yes a great way to start the season…jet-lagged!
oh market share being what it is i guess the RS need more income to be able to spend more money to get/retain high quality roster.
i already view this coming year as a transitional year where i really do not expect too much but also really prefer RS to not trade away the farm…let the younger guys come up and BE the next H Ram.
I think this is another sign why the MLB needs me in their front office. I did a research assignment about a year ago about the possibility of expanding the MLB into Australia. They're going to have to put a lot of money behind RBI and Little League baseball if they want to build the game in the region and make sure that Charley Lau's books aren't still being misinterpreted.
What are they thinking? Certainly not this year. Why not AFTER the season, and take their families on a relaxing, barnstorming, wine-drinking, lobster-eating junket in October/November. Australia is a longer, more difficult trip than Japan. The jet lag Donna talks about will be much worse than 2008. This year's ST schedule is full from 3/19 through 4/2, with 5 of their last 6G home at Ft. Myers, which is perfect. This is followed by their exhibition @ D.C. on 4/3, then home to the Yankees 4/5. Following Australia, another foreshortened ST plus huge jet lag, they will simply lose to NYY in NY. Baseball players are subject to the same problems with jet lag, over-extending & exhaustion, colds & flus, missing ST time.
Immediately comes the first road trip, 6G at KC & MN which will delay their full recovery from jet lag and any minor aches and flues developed on the trip. So, instead of starting their road record on the plus side, they'll be digging a hole. This is followed by 10G at home with TB, TX, BAL, but by then, instead of pulling ahead, they will be trying to get back into the win column. Surely, Evan, you jest.
It's interesting how players said, year after year, that spring training was 'too long' and that guys are ready to go a couple of weeks in.
People fly to Australia all the time. I'm sure they'll be fine.
I don't know how much Pacific Rim flying you have done, but Australia is, literally, the toughest trip of all. Not only numerous time zones, but two hemispheres. It is legendary. Try and remember how long it took the 2008 Sox to recover from the Japan trip which, while important and good bonding, directly impacted the health of the team in April. They started off very slow, and flu like symptoms spread through the clubhouse in April, attributed to travel fatigue. It's the real thing. Experienced business travelers build time into their schedules for recovering from multiple time-zone jet lag; and trips to/from Australia can knock even a frequent traveler off their game for a week. Travelling east is a bear. As the Sox will be on the road immediately upon return, any symptoms of fatigue will persist and resolve slowly. In sum. I'm usually the optimist on this site, but I'm afraid they won't be fine, and after the negative impact of the Tokyo trip in '08, and the WBC in '09, I find it hard to believe Theo would allow the team to squander the first few weeks of '09 for a junket which would be much better done in our Fall, which is the Australian Spring.
Will they take the Yankees with them?
the flight to australia will not be the problem, even though you cross multiple time zones and the date line the regular flights from LA to Sydney have you leaving LA in the evening and arrive in Sydney early morning. Unforunately the return trip is the killer. Last time I did the return flight I left Sydney at 6am, arrived in LAX early morning, and made it to my final destination in Louisiana in the early evening, no big problem, next day however I only lasted 6 hours awake.