Major League Baseball officially opened its 2025 regular season today as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs played game one of a two-day series in Tokyo, Japan. This morning, following the game, Jonathan Hood, co-host of Kap & J-Hood on ESPN Chicago, criticized MLB for doing a disservice to both the Dodgers and the Cubs by starting the season earlier than ever with the Tokyo Series.
While Hood acknowledged that it’s great for baseball to showcase some of its biggest stars in their home country, he argued that the scheduling could ultimately harm both clubs. He emphasized that the timing of the series made little sense.
“My problem is that the games counted,” said Hood. “Then both the Cubs and Dodgers have to go back to spring training. That makes no sense to me. That’s my only disconnect on it is that the games count. Both teams are not ready to go in Major League Baseball shape, but they had to.”
Later, Hood expressed that while he understood MLB’s motivation for playing in the home country of defending MVP Shohei Ohtani and several other key players, the pursuit of sponsorship dollars was especially evident during the broadcast.
“The reason why is because of money,” stated Hood on ESPN Chicago. “If you turn on that game for a minute, you know what you saw? A bunch of sponsorships behind home plate in the outfield. That’s not unlike any other major league baseball stadium, but what I’m saying is that the reason why this happens is because of money and sponsorships.”
The contest was broadcast nationally on FOX and distributed to more than 200 countries and territories. Additionally, it will be available through MLB.TV outside of the Los Angeles and Chicago markets. The 2025 Tokyo Series marks the sixth MLB regular-season opener played in Japan and the second straight season to begin abroad, following the 2024 Seoul Series.
Hood further explained his frustration by drawing a comparison to the NFL’s approach to international games.
“To have that count and then have games that don’t is a disconnect for me,” explained Hood. “The NFL would never do that. The NFL has had their international game on a Friday and then swung into the regular season. Could you imagine if the NFL said, ‘This NFL Hall of Fame Game counts for the record, but the season doesn’t start for another three weeks’? That makes no sense to me.”
Hood continued by considering the players’ perspective, questioning the fairness of the situation.
“For the ballplayers, even though you may not be ready to go for a long stretch, these games in Japan count because we’re getting money for Japan. That’s not right.”
The second game of the Tokyo Series will air at 6:00 a.m. EST on FS1, featuring the Dodgers and the Cubs.
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