It seems to always coincide with an election year, but one wonders how many primaries Major League Baseball has to go through in Japan before it decides yea or nay on the ballot.

MLB tested the waters—no pun intended—again a few days ago, sending the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s to the Land of the Rising Sun for a two-game, for-real series before either team had completed the exhibition season.

First, they each played an exhibition against two of the Japanese franchises, emerging with a 2-0 record before splitting the games against each other. Then they both flew home...

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