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December 5, 2009

Red Sox Playing In Australia?

UPDATE: The team has denied this report, stating "the Boston Red Sox aren't in negotiations to play nor plan to play a game in Australia in the 2010 season".
Example
The Daily Telegraph (my emphasis):
THE Boston Red Sox, one of the world's most famous baseball teams, are coming to Australia for a Major League game at our own field of dreams - the Sydney Cricket Ground - next year.

Red Sox officials watched the Danny Green-Roy Jones Jr fight at Acer Arena on Wednesday night as guest of Events NSW chief executive Geoff Parmenter. We understand negotiations have been taking place with Red Sox management for several months about coming to Sydney to play a yet to be announced Major League rival around late March.

The game would be beamed live back into the US and would be an official Major League game and not a trial. The Red Sox are considered the Manchester United of American baseball and would prove a huge hit Down Under.
Man U? Really? Did this marriage end in divorce?

Sydney is 16 hours ahead of Boston. So, for example, a 7 PM game in Sydney would begin at 3 AM in Boston.

The Red Sox opened the 2008 season in Tokyo, which is 14 hours ahead. The reported date of late March would indicate a similar beginning to the 2010 season.
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15 comments:

  1. laura kDecember 5, 2009 at 7:32 AM

    The Red Sox are considered the Manchester United of American baseball and would prove a huge hit Down Under.

    Funny, the rest of the world hates Man U. They are the Yankees of football, and NYY is the Man U of baseball.

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  2. (Ryan) MichneyDecember 5, 2009 at 9:41 AM

    I'm pretty sure that the Red Sox are actually supposed to be the Chelsea of American baseball. Chelsea always played in the same stadium, have a lot of history, and endured a long championship drought that ended a few years ago.

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  3. Edward LeeDecember 5, 2009 at 10:30 AM

    Having the Red Sox associated with either Man Utd or Chelsea is pukeatronic. Is there some way we can finagle a deal with Barcelona?

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  4. allanDecember 5, 2009 at 10:46 AM

    I assume it's nothing more than a non-sportswriter who knows the Red Sox are a very popular MLB team and tried to quickly think of a comparison that non-sports-minded readers would understand. (Except that soccer/football is a sport. Hmmm.)

    Is there some way we can finagle a deal with Barcelona?

    MANUEL!

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  5. johngoldfineDecember 5, 2009 at 10:54 AM

    It takes many, many days to bounce back from those long flights--

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  6. allanDecember 5, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    Still nothing at either the Globe or Herald.

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  7. RobDecember 5, 2009 at 12:40 PM

    As if it makes much of a difference, I'm pretty sure that since we'll be into Daylight Savings Time by then it'll be 15 hours difference and the game(s) would start at 4 AM. I'm pretty sure Australia doesn't go back to Standard Time until late April, or else it'd be 5 AM. But 4 AM is a purdy good bet.

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  8. laura kDecember 5, 2009 at 12:50 PM

    I can definitively say that if a game begins at 4:00 a.m. I will miss at least the first 3 innings, without apology. I can neither stay up that late nor get up that early without ruining my entire day. If this is true, then it's a fuck-you to the fans, and I'll just say fuck you back, at least until 6 or 7 a.m.

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  9. johngoldfineDecember 5, 2009 at 1:07 PM

    I think the whole thing is a fuck-you to the fans. I understand the rationale for playing in Japan--or Korea or Taiwan--places with genuine interest in baseball and talent pools for major league teams. But from what I can see in a few minutes of googling, Australia has baseball the way the United States has, say, rugby. It's a curiosity.

    So, maybe MLB is excited about the publicity--but if MLB really wanted to offer a hat tip to baseball fans everywhere it would be looking to play in Mexico or, you'll pardon the expression, Venezuela, or, you'll doubly pardon the expression, Cuba.

    ;)

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  10. RobDecember 5, 2009 at 1:20 PM

    Yeah, why couldn't they start the game at 8 PM which would be 5 AM here? That's not THAT bad...

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  11. 9caseyDecember 5, 2009 at 3:14 PM

    isn't the schedule already set for next year....

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  12. allanDecember 5, 2009 at 3:43 PM

    Red Sox deny this report

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  13. laura kDecember 5, 2009 at 4:24 PM

    Does the team have final say over decisions like that or is it up to MLB? If MLB wants two teams to open in Japan or wherever, can team ownership veto it?

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  14. No No NanetteDecember 6, 2009 at 3:25 AM

    Not many sports fans in Sydney take seriously anything that Rothfield & Wilson write.

    Sports journalism in Australia is pitiful. They write for a pitiful paper. And they are the most pitiful writers on their rag.

    They are the Pittsburgh Pirates on sports writing.

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  15. RedSoxDiehardDecember 6, 2009 at 7:19 AM

    This coming on the same day as spring training tickets went onsale for the entire month of March is just silly.

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