As long as I can remember, I've been told that baseball is America's pastime. I may have to change my thinking as the powers that be in major league baseball are trying to make the sport I have always loved, a world wide pastime. I'm not sure I like that.

As many of you know, the 2008 regular season opened in the Tokyo Dome. Boston played Oakland in a game that began at 3:00am Oakland time, 6:00am in Boston. The start time is a big turn off or turn on (as in turn on your TV at 3:00am). I can honestly say I know of no one who watched this year's opener live.

Baseball is all about tradition. When I think of opening day, the Reds are playing the Cubs or the Cardinals in Cincinnati, not the A's and Red Sox in Japan. Major league baseball, in it's effort to make their sport global, told their greatest and most loyal fans in the United States that they cold care less about them on opening day. What makes this even more laughable, is after Boston and Oakland play their first 2 regular season games in Tokyo, they're headed home for more spring training games that don't count. That's ridiculous.

Greed is an ugly thing. MLB is now trying to squeeze out every dollar they can from a growing worldwide audience and the games in Japan could be a tip of the iceberg. It's not too far fetched to envision opening day in Beijing, Sydney, London, Moscow or some other foreign market.

America's pastime may now be past it's time and that's a shame. gcruz@kpho.com

Gary Cruz
CBS 5 Sports Anchor