MLB captivates Japan with homecoming of its baseball superstars

Major League Baseball’s regular season kicked off on Tuesday with an opening pitch thrown from halfway around the world.

TOKYO — Major League Baseball’s regular season kicked off on Tuesday with an opening pitch thrown from halfway around the world.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won 4-1 against the Chicago Cubs in the first of a two-game series at Tokyo Dome, a 55,000-seat indoor stadium in the Japanese capital, as America’s pastime seeks a wider international audience.

There may be no more natural place for the season to begin than Japan, a baseball-crazy country whose star players have revitalized the American game.

Though Major League games have been played here before, never before have they featured so many Japanese stars, including the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, a national hero.

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers preparing to face the Chicago Cubs at Tokyo Dome on Tuesday.Mary DeCicco / MLB Photos via Getty ImagesOhtani is one of five Japanese players appearing in the games, along with Dodgers pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga and Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mlb-captivates-japan-homecoming-baseball-superstars-rcna196843

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