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September 5, 2008 5:36:17 PM CDT

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MLB Starts Season With Rising Sun

Posted Mar 25, 08 10:45 AM CDT in World,  Sports 

(Newser) – The sun was just rising in Boston today as the Red Sox began their World Series title defense by taking on the Oakland Athletics half a world away. Many American fans were still in bed, but Japanese aficionados were paying rapt attention, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The Sox have been selling out exhibition games all week, playing for baseball-crazed fans with a decidedly different style than they're used to.

“It has been a while since I've heard the Japanese fans cheering,” said today’s Red Sox starter, Daisuke Matsuzaka. Matsuzaka, whose popularity in his native land makes Hannah Montana look like broccoli, is used to Japan’s crazed fans. They beat drums and sing in an atmosphere one owner compared to “Disneyland, and baseball is like one of its attractions.” On the field, Boston prevailed, 6-5, in 10 innings.

Sources Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe

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Tenryu Yoshida, a four-year-old Japanese boy, wearing a Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka T-shirt waits for his father in front of Tokyo Dome.   (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A fan holds up a banner for Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka before their Major League Baseball regular season opener against the Oakland Athletics at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, March 25, 2008.   (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Oakland Athletics fans take a souvenir photo in front of Tokyo Dome where the Major League Baseball regular season openers between the Boston Red Sox and the Athletics began today in Tokyo.   (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
A Boston fan wearing a Red Sox T-shirt and cheering placard looks at an MLB goods corner before the Major League Baseball regular season opener between the Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo.   (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka smiles as he leaves the dugout after the team's practice at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, March 24, 2008.   (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
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MLB  • baseball  • Japan  • Boston Red Sox  • Oakland Athletics  • Daisuke Matsuzaka


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