Asian fever hits 2007 MLB season opener

The Asian armada has arrived in MLB.Â

As the 2007 MLB baseball season begins, no change in the game is so stark, no trend so significant than the Asian invasion of the major leagues. Almost every team has at least one Asian player, and the most talented among them are no longer just pitchers. Through the years, players from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have begun to excel at nearly every position.

Seattle Mariners’ outfielder Ichiro is a perennial all-star and one of the game’s most exciting hitters and base-stealers.

And on the opposite coast, the New York Yankees best pitcher may be Chien-Ming Wang of Taiwan, and Japanese outfielder Hideki Matsui may be the most respected and revered Yankee not named Jeter.

The most anticipated new face in the majors is no Mantle-clone from Oklahoma, but a stylish, confident, gyro-ball throwing right-hander named Daisuke Matsuzaka.

As even the most neophyte baseball fan knows by now, the Boston Red Sox shelled out $103.1 million to sign Japan’s star pitcher, who was impressive during spring training and is scheduled to make his first major-league start on Thursday in Kansas City.

Clearly, the Great American Pastime is not very American anymore.

That’s a good thing in our world becomes more global. Just about every sport has embraced talented athletes from other nations and our games are better for it.

Now, with Asian players attracted by the opportunity to play with the world’s best players and earn millions more than they can back home, Japanese baseball is staring squarely at its own demise.

MLB Baseball Futures Betting, 2006 World Series Odds at Bodog Sportsbook

2007 World Series Odds: Again, this isn’t to say that any of this holds any kind of predictive value (it certainly does not), but considering how horrible the Cubs were last season, it’s shocking to see the Cubs at 8/1 odds this high up on the list.