The MLB All-Stars won the first game of their Japanese tour. I like the fact that the Japanese teams are becoming more competitive with the US leagues:

Japanese manager Katsuya Nomura said the gap between Japan and the major leagues is closing.

'I've been in this game for 50 years,' Nomura said. 'I've taken part in this series several times and it used to be there was a huge gap in the level of play, but it's closing and we had a very good chance of winning this ballgame tonight.'

The final score was 3-2. As the Asian leagues get stronger, I hope to see a real playoff between an Asian champion and a North American champion some day. Maybe even regular season games between the two.