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Sunday, March 16
Baseball officials consider Europe for in-season games
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY -- Baseball goes with apple pie -- and next year, maybe with pasta or
brie.
The commissioner's office has started discussing a plan to move regular-season games
to Europe in July 2004.
Italy, France, the Netherlands and England are among the candidates, according to Paul
Archey, a senior vice president of Major League Baseball International.
"That's the next big frontier: Europe,'' Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green
said Sunday. "It's really an untapped resource.''
Baseball has been aggressively expanding its presence outside the United States and
Canada, playing season openers in Monterrey, Mexico (1999), Tokyo (2000 and this
year) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001). The Montreal Expos will play 22 "home''
games this season in San Juan.
Looking ahead, baseball already is considering having the New York Yankees and Hideki
Matsui play their 2004 opener in Japan, with Tampa Bay, Toronto and Baltimore among
the possibilities for the opponent.
Planning for Europe is in the early stages. Commissioner Bud Selig has not yet given the
go-ahead, although he's excited about the possibilities of taking the game all over the
world.
"We need to do more of it and we need to do more of it on a regular basis,'' Selig said in
Phoenix. "We're going to step up the internationalization of the game and go a lot of
places. We have a lot of clubs anxious to go wherever we're going.''
Archey said a date just before the All-Star break would work best, with just after the
break a possibility. Moving games to Europe at the start of the season would be difficult
because of concerns about cold weather and rain.
"Italy is probably the front-runner because they have one of the strongest fan bases and
they have facilities,'' Archey said.
Ballparks are available in Florence and Palermo, and a soccer stadium in Rome could be
converted to baseball, according to Archey. In France, he said a new ballpark is under
construction outside Paris, but it might not be ready in time.
A cricket or soccer ground could be converted in England, but the possibility of rainouts
is a negative factor. The Netherlands hosts a big baseball tournament each summer in
Haarlem.
"I could make the case that we need to play regular-season games in Europe, and there
are markets that are sophisticated enough to distinguish between regular-season and
spring-training games,'' said Tim Brosnan, executive vice president in the
commissioner's office.
Most players seem to like the idea of expanding baseball internationally. Several Mets
and Dodgers at this weekend's two-game exhibition series in Mexico said that while the
extra travel was a hassle, it was worth the effort just because of the excitement they
saw among Mexican fans.
And Italy and France are always popular tourist destinations.
"I'd definitely be in favor of it,'' Yankees slugger Jason Giambi said. "I've never been
over to Italy, but my family is from there. I'd like to see it. I'm not sure they're as
fanatic about baseball in Europe as they are in Japan and other places, so maybe this
would be a way to expand it.''
"This could jump-start it, I guess,'' teammate Derek Jeter said. "It'd be like a West Coast
trip for us. It'd be all right.''
Others would view the trip as an unnecessary interruption to a season already filled with
many long flights.
"You shouldn't make it mandatory, not in the middle of the season,'' Houston Astros
All-Star Lance Berkman said. "It's a long way to go, and it would disrupt the rhythm of
the players who did it.
"Look at NFL Europe -- they don't exactly embrace football over there. The fans there
have soccer, tennis, other sports, and that's great. I'm not sure that what baseball would
get out of it from a public-relations standpoint is worth the harm you'd do to the players
who had to make the trip.''
That, however, appears to be a minority view.
"Baseball is becoming an international sport. Anything they do to help the game grow is
good,'' Arizona's Steve Finley said. "Part of major league baseball's job is to grow the
game, to get baseball more popular around the world. Look at the Japan (All-Star) tour
and what that's done for the relationship between the two leagues. Players are crossing
over leagues now.''
MLB ab 2004 in Europa?
MLB ab 2004 in Europa?
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