The Major League Baseball season begins in Tokyo Wednesday with the Oakland Athletics set to feel the full force of ‘Ichiro-mania' when they face the Seattle Mariners. The A's will be the ‘home' team for both games, but the majority of fans filling the cavernous Tokyo Dome will be there to pay homage to Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. The record-breaking Ichiro has never played in his home country in a Seattle uniform since joining them in 2001 and his ‘home-coming' is major news, competing with a planned North Korean rocket launch which has Japan on red alert. Seattle and Oakland were scheduled to face off in Tokyo in 2003, but the series was called off because of the threat of war in Iraq. The teams open the MLB regular season with a two-game series Wednesday and Thursday, with the A's unlikely to get anything like a home-team reception. Oakland played second fiddle to the circus surrounding Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka circus the last time they crossed the Pacific in 2008. Despite being the designated home side, the A's were booted out of the home clubhouse to make way for Boston. “We are wearing white uniforms,” said A's manager Bob Melvin. “But based on the fact the Mariners have more Japanese players than we do, sentiment might go the other way.” Infielder Munenori Kawasaki has forced his way onto Seattle's 25-man roster, alongside countrymen Ichiro and pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. Japan's most successful sporting export, Ichiro holds MLB's single-season hits record of 262 and set another iron-man record by reaching 200 hits for the 10th year in a row in 2010. He was batting .400 since moving reluctantly to third spot in the line-up this spring after batting lead-off nearly all of his career. Meanwhile, Oakland's Manny Ramirez did not travel to Japan as he must sit out the first 50 games for a second violation of MLB's drug policy. But Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes will bring some power to the plate, the center fielder billed as one of the best players to come out of his country in a generation. The Mariners were the worst offensive team in MLB last season but are banking on Venezuelan off-season acquisition Jesus Montero to help produce runs. As part of the MLB's pledge to assist rebuilding after last year's deadly tsunami, several players visited the disaster zone in the northeast to hold a baseball clinic Tuesday.
