5/27 Joshua Cherniss

 We started the day out like all the others, as some of us woke up at a good time to go get some breakfast, while others got every minute of sleep possible. I chose to get up and make sure to get some food in me, as I don’t function very well when I don’t eat something in the morning. Our first stop of the day was at MLB Asia, as they invited us to their office and gave us a presentation about how the MLB is capitalizing on the popularity of baseball in Eastern Asia. Mostly the regions of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. All of these markets present different challenges to be able to get the fans hooked onto the product of not only MLB baseball but also their local leagues, for example, in South Korea, they have the KBO. They directly compete with MLB in terms of local fandom and viewership. During our time at MLB Asia, we also learned about how the Japanese Media rights deals to be able to broadcast the games are anything but linear, as there are different rights holders for different teams, similar to what we see in the MLB and College Athletics. Major streaming providers such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and DAZN all own the rights to different Japanese baseball teams. While other teams' broadcasting rights are owned by more local stations. One of the other main points of the trip to MLB Asia was how star power drove everything, especially in Japan. Players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki drive fandom for the Dodgers in Japan on a large scale. Similar to teams like the Cubs, who have Seya Suzuki. Compare that to a country like South Korea, where baseball fandom is more driven by trends, not local stars in the MLB. 

After that, we went to lunch as a group at a nice Hibachi place in a mall near the MLB Asia office, as we got a surprise meeting scheduled with the PGA Japan office. We were able to pick their brain on how they leverage their local and signature tournaments to drive fandom all across Asia, not just Japan. The biggest tournament that takes place in Japan is called the BayCurrent Classic. That event drives a lot of the fandom for Golf around Asia, as that is the only Major event to take place in all of Asia. 

To end off the day, we went to the Tokyo Dome to take in some Japanese baseball in a game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Fukuoka Hawks. The Yomiyuri giants, which were the home team, won thrillingly in a 5-1 game. This was Professor Kim and my friend Zach Siegel's first win as a group in our two years traveling on either the Olympic Odyssey trip or this one. I had a great time at the baseball game and being able to experience everything that comes with going on a Maymester trip like this.