Jottings from the Granite Studio

In the wake of the China Bowl debacle comes news that the greatest rivalry in sports might be taking the show to Asia next spring.

The official website of the Boston Red Sox reports today:

“NEW YORK — The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, bitter rivals in the American League East, could be headed for an Opening Day showdown in the Far East.

Major League Baseball has entered preliminary negotiations with several teams, including the Yankees and Red Sox, about playing exhibition games in China next March and opening the regular season in Japan, according to a report in Saturday’s New York Times.”

The Red Sox feature two stars from Japan (Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima) while the Yankees have three key players from Asia including Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui, starting pitcher Kei Igawa, and Tawainese (ahem, Chinese?) sensation Chien-ming Wang (王建民).

Given the “will they, won’t they” back-and-forth over the Patriots recently canceled trip to Beijing, I’m not getting my hopes up. The news is just preliminary. But it’s definitely worth watching…