SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – They've started the last three seasons in Mexico, Japan and Puerto Rico. So where do baseball's world travelers take their road show next year?
"We want to do this every year," said the commish himself, Bud Selig, on Sunday, during Toronto's 8-1 win over Texas on international Opening Day.
But where? Selig wouldn't quite say.
Venezuela (specifically, Caracas) and the Dominican Republic (specifically, Santo
Domingo) have been prominently mentioned. And Selig called those sites "very logical."
"But there might be others," the commish said. "We do want to expand our horizons. Baseball has been slow to internationalize. And as a result, we're trying to pick up the pace."
In fact, there are many other sites under consideration for future openers: Europe (most prominent site mentioned: Amsterdam), Australia, Panama and return engagements in Mexico and Japan.
Stay tuned.
Trials worth it for Pudge, Delgado
They were the focal point of this Puerto Rican baseball festival. But as exhausting as it was, Pudge Rodriguez and Carlos Delgado say they would take this kind of exhaustion any time.
"It was pretty hectic," Delgado said. "But once it came time to (play), I was able to have just baseball in my mind. It was a little tiring, but I expected that. I guess it comes with the territory."
"Right now," Rodriguez said, "I am tired. I felt it today a lot. But I had a great time with the people, in front of my own people, playing here. If I had to do it over, I'd do it again soon. I'm just tired right now."
Incidentally, the two went a combined 1-for-8 Sunday, with Delgado's bloop single, in his final at-bat, the only hit. But in Saturday's exhibition game, Pudge went 3-for-3, with two homers and a double. And Delgado also homered.
Helling doesn't dig the long ball
In that exhibition game Saturday, with the wind blowing out, the two teams combined for nine home runs, 22 runs and 32 hits. Sunday's game, with the wind blowing in, was slightly more normal.
But don't tell that to Texas starter Rick Helling, who gave up two home runs that wouldn't have been home runs anywhere else on earth except Estadio Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
"Both teams had to play here, so no excuses," Helling said. "But no park in the major leagues is this size – even close."
Helling said he couldn't understand why MLB put so much effort into renovating almost every other aspect of the stadium – but never did anything about the proximity of the outfield fences, which are barely over 330 feet distant in the gaps.
"They've known for a while we were going to play here," Helling said. "From talking to the guys who are from here, this is the smallest park in Puerto Rico. It's kind of surprising they would pick it. I hear they've got a new park here that's really nice. I don't know why we didn't play there. They made a lot of changes here, to the clubhouses and the dugout and everything else. I guess they didn't really feel the dimensions of the park were anything that needed to be changed."
Helling on Tony Batista's fourth-inning home run into the first row in left, which broke a 1-1 tie: "That was just a pop-up. That's not even a warning-track ball in any other park I've ever played in. Even in my legion-ball park, that's not out."
| |
|
