MLB season opens next week with a special trip to Japan for MVP Shohei Ohtani

One month after the Super Bowl, and with the NBA regular season nearing its end, another big sports league will reach American homes: Major League Baseball. We are only one week away from the regular season start, which will take place in the other side of the globe: Japan.

Baseball is one of Japan's most popular sports, so it is not uncommon for the MLB to organise Tokyo Series, scheduling the season openers in Japan. In 2025, the MLB will start on March 18-19 at the Tokyo Dome, with two games between Los Angeles Dodgers - last year's winners - and Chicago Cubs. Dodgers is where popular Japanese player Shohei Ohtani, MVP in 2024 and one of the best paid athletes in the world plays. At least three other Japanese players could be in the squad for next week's Tokyo games: right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto for Dodgers, and left-hander Shota Imanaga and outfielder Seiya Suzuki for the Cubs.

This will be the sixth time MLB openers have been played in Japan, the first time being 25 years ago. The American Baseball league has organized more than 200 international games in 11 countries, including the UK, Cuba or Puerto Rico. This year, the MLB will also travel to Monterrey in Mexico con March 24-25.

After those international games, the traditional Opening Day, with 14-games played in one day, will take place on March 27, the earliest ever (it used to begin on April). The regular season will go on until September 28, 2025.