TOKYO — There was the crack of Shohei Ohtani’s bat, the roars from the Tokyo Dome crowd and the beeps from the credit card machines at the massive merchandise center selling boatloads of Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs gear.
It all must have been music to the ears of Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
The 2025 season couldn’t have had a much better start for the sport, which showcased its international appeal in Japan. The Tokyo Dome hosted a capacity crowd of roughly 42,000 for all four games — two exhibitions against Japanese teams and two regular-season games — and thousands more came downtown to enjoy the spectacle of a wildly successful overseas trip.