Athletics-Red Sox: Oakland and Boston Show Japan How It's Done

Emil Brown redeemed himself today. After costing his new team the game yesterday with a boner base running move (way to show the Japanese how the Big Leaguers play the game, ditto Manny “The Statue” Ramirez) he smoked a three run homer to lead the A’s to a 5-1 win. Manny spanked a homer today and after a down year in 2007 is getting his contract year off with a bang. BoSawx fans are on barbershop alert though. You never know with the mercurial Man Ram he may want to wind up his career back home with his boyhood heroes the Yankees. When all is said and done it may be hard to measure the overall effect of these diplomatic tours to the Far East. Are the Japanese going to favor the more free spirited less disciplined brand of baseball over the top down, authoritarian Japanese way of doing things? I doubt it. So what is the point of games that count played in far off places? Does the cost out weigh the benefits? I guess we will have to wait and see. While we are on the subject of ... [link]