When you're across the international dateline and 12 hours ahead of eastern standard time, it's hard to follow Major League Baseball. The internet was about the only way I could keep track of the goings on, which made trying to follow the playoffs endlessly frustrating.
Having said all of that, I have an observation. We hear a lot about how baseball is trying to build popularity for the game in Asia. My trip to Beijing and Tokyo suggests that baseball has a long way to go.
No one in Beijing seemed to care about baseball. No one was talking about the playoffs, and even the ESPN channel wasn't covering every game.
Baseball is more popular in Tokyo, but all anyone seemed to care about was Hideki Matsui. He is enormously popular in Japan, but his popularity doesn't seem to have translated to MLB generally. The Yankees appear to be somewhat popular, but MLB doesn't seem to have a large fan base in Japan.
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