PHOENIX — Major League Baseball continues to bring regular season games to international markets, and the Arizona Diamondbacks are in favor of stepping into that spotlight again at some point.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs wrapped up a two-game series in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, and Tuesday’s opener drew 25 million viewers in Japan. The second game brought in 23 million viewers.
The Boston Red Sox will play two exhibition games against Sultanes de Monterrey in Mexico next week, and MLB pulled back on plans to play in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Mexico City this season.
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“We’re in favor of international, and I know there’s a lot of countries that have interest in us playing,” D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall said on Tuesday. “Like Taiwan, with Corbin Carroll being here.
“What makes sense to me, though, I would like to play in Mexico City. Going to Australia was a tough task. I know that there’s been interest in us going to Asia, not just Taiwan, but even Japan or Korea. … Being a border state, I’d really like to get to Mexico. We have so many fans. We played in Hermosillo for years. They come up and watch our games. I would like to get to the big city.”
The D-backs have experience playing games around the world, having played a pair of games in Sydney, Australia, against the Dodgers back in 2014.
They were scheduled to play a two-game, regular season series against the San Diego Padres in Mexico City during the 2020 season, but that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The D-backs previously played a pair of exhibition games against the Colorado Rockies in Monterrey in 2019.
Manager Torey Lovullo said he’d be for the idea as a way to grow the Diamondbacks’ reach internationally.
“If Derrick and Ken (Kendrick) made that decision to bring us into a situation where we promote baseball, and specifically Arizona Diamondback baseball, I’m all for it,” Lovullo said on Friday. “It’s our job to go out there and promote this game, and whether it’s domestically or internationally, we gotta.
“I will say that the one thing I asked for when I saw (ESPN’s) Karl Ravech last season, it’s not international baseball, but I said, ‘Look, you got to get us on that Williamsport (Little League World Series) gig.’ I want to go there really bad. I never made it as a player, but it’d be great to play in that game. So maybe put us on the list for that one. But yeah, I think anytime you can get out there and expose this organization internationally, it’s going to help the D-backs.”
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