March 22, 2014: Major League Baseball in Australia

The Sydney Cricket Ground, catching baseball fever

March 22, 2014: For the 1st time, a regular-season Major League Baseball game is played in the Southern Hemisphere. It is set a week before everybody else's Opening Day, so that the teams involved can have time to adjust to the long distances and the time zone differences.

Baseball has gained in popularity in Australia in the 21st Century, but it is not as popular there as cricket, or swimming (a sport at which Australians have long excelled at in international competition), or various forms of football: Soccer, rugby, and Australian Rules Football (similar to rugby, but no padding, and the "kits" look more like basketball uniforms).

Contrary to what many believe, cricket is not an ancestor of baseball. They are more like cousins: The similarities between the two bat-and-ball games are strong, but the differences are even more significant.

The games would be played between 2 teams in the National League Western Division, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Phoenix-based Arizona Diamondbacks. The venue would be the Sydney Cricket Ground, where seating capacity is usually 48,601, but was reduced to 38,000 for these games. The foul poles were 328 feet from home plate, the power alleys 370, and center field 400.

The SCG had hosted cricket since 1848, and while the Members' Pavilion dates to 1878 and the Ladies' Pavilion to 1896, most of the stadium is considerably newer: The Berwongle Stand to 1980, the Bill O'Reilly Stand (not named for the disgraced American newscaster) in 1984, the Clive Churchill Stand in 1986, the Victor Trumper Stand in 2008, and, opening in time for this series, the M.A. Noble, Bradman and Messenger Stands.

(You know how, when someone is far and away the best at something, he is known as the Babe Ruth of it? Donald Bradman was the Babe Ruth of cricket, building a legendary career that began in 1927, Ruth's baseball peak, and lasting until 1949, the time of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.)

The SCG is, along with the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the home of the Australia national cricket team. It is also the home of the New South Wales cricket team. (Each of Australia's States has its own, just as every County in England, Wales and Scotland do.). It is home to Australian baseball's Sydney Sixers, the Australian Football League's Sydney Swans, the New South Wales Waratahs of Super Rugby ("rugby union," the more common form of that sport), and the Sydney Roosters of the National Rugby league ("rugby league" is a variant).

The 1st game in the series began at 7:00 PM, Australian Eastern Standard Time, 1:00 AM U.S. Pacific Daylight Time, and 4:00 AM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time. The Diamondbacks were officially the home team for the opener.

The Dodgers opened the scoring in the top of the 2nd inning. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety, even Down Under. Adrian Gonzalez led off the inning with a walk, and was doubled over to 3rd base by Scott Van Slyke. After a strikeout by Juan Uribe, Andre Eithier grounded to 2nd, and Gonzalez scored, making it 1-0 Dodgers.

In the top of the 4th, Gonzalez reached 1st base on a dropped 3rd strike by Diamondback catcher Miguel Montero, and Van Slyke hit a home run off D-backs starter Wade Miley. That made it 3-0. Clayton Kershaw pitched superbly, allowing a run on a groundout in the bottom of the 6th. The Dodger bullpen held, and Los Angeles won, 3-1.

The 2nd game was played at 1:00 PM local time on March 23, 7:00 PM Pacific and 4:00 PM Eastern on March 22 in the U.S. The Diamondbacks were again treated as the home team, but found no advantage. An Ethier single got the Dodgers on the board in the 1st, and they tacked on 2 more runs each in the 3rd and the 5th, and 1 each in the 6th and the 7th. 

Arizona pulled a run back in the 8th. In the 9th, they mounted a rally, including the 1st MLB home run ever hit in the Southern Hemisphere, by Mark Trumbo. But it fell short, and the Dodgers won, 7-5. Hyun-Jim Ryu, closer to his homeland of Japan than he would have been in Los Angeles, was the starting and winning pitcher for the Dodgers. Trevor Cahill of the Diamondbacks had previously been 6-0 against the Dodgers in his career, but took the loss on this occasion.

MLB has not returned to Australia, but these contests showed that there's no reason why they couldn't: The games were sellouts, and well-received, and the sport continues to grow in popularity there.

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March 22, 2014 was a Saturday. Baseball was, otherwise, in Spring Training; and football was out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 124-94 at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte. (It's now named the Spectrum Center.)

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Indiana Pacers, 82-71 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Miami Heat, 105-95 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 118-111 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. James Harden scored 37 points for the Rockets. (That's not why the arena is now named the Rocket Arena.)

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 91-81 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Orlando Magic, 89-88 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (then named the EnergySolutions Arena).

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Detroit Pistons, 112-103 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (It's now named the Crypto.com Arena.)

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Golden State Warriors, 99-90 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the Prudential Center.

* The New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 1-0 at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. (It's now named the PPG Paints Arena.)

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Matt Moulson scored the winning goal with 2:45 left in overtime. 

* The Nashville Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-0 at the United Center, which hosted both sports in the same day.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Florida Panthers, 6-2 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-2 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

Also, in England's Premier League, Arsenal Football Club of North London played its 1,000th match under manager Arsène Wenger. It was a disaster, as they lost to Chelsea, 6-0 at Chelsea's home of Stamford Bridge in West London.

It wasn't entirely their own fault: Referee Andre Marriner was clearly favoring Chelsea, and even gave a straight red card to Kieran Gibbs for a handball in the box, when it was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, also a young black player with a shaved head, who committed the foul. "Ox" told Marriner, "It was me!" to no avail, and everyone who watched the game had come to two conclusions: Marriner was incompetent, and all black players looked alike to him.