- The Tokyo Series will open the 2025 Major League Baseball season
- The LA Dodgers and Chicago Cubs will meet twice in the Tokyo Dome
- Series will be a homecoming for several Dodgers and Cubs players
The 2025 Major League Baseball season is only two months away from commencing. Although all eyes won’t be on Dodger or Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Fenway or AT&T Park on opening day. Instead, they’ll be on the Tokyo Dome as the Dodgers and Cubs play out the Tokyo Series to open the season.
MLB opened the regular season in Tokyo for the first time 25 years ago, with the Cubs there like they will be this time round. Only Chicago’s opponents that year were the New York Mets. It was the first time regular season MLB games had been played overseas.
Of course, since then, overseas games have become a regular occurence. LA opened up the 2024 campaign in Seoul against the San Francisco Padres. There have now been three successful London Series, while Japan itself has been visited by MLB teams four times since the inaugural Tokyo Series a quarter of a century ago (Yankees vs. Rays in 2004; Red Sox vs. A’s in 2008; Mariners vs. A’s in 2012 and 2019).
Mexico hosted the first international (but not overseas) MLB games in 1996, when the Mets and Padres traveled to Monterrey for a three-game series. The Astros and Rockies also played twice in Mexico City last April.
And now the MLB World Tour will once again reach East Asia. All eyes will be on the four Japanese players who will be taking part across both teams; Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for World Series Champions the Dodgers and Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki for the Cubs.
“I’m really excited for it,” Imanaga said via interpreter to mlb.com . “In Japan, that’s where I grew as a player. The fans kept rooting for me, so I want to show them now how I grew over here, and they can continue to cheer me on.”
When And Where Will The MLB Tokyo Series Take Place?
The games will take place on Tuesday, March 18 and Wednesday, March 19 at the Tokyo Dome in the Japanese capital. The Tokyo Series will begin at 7pm Japanese Standard Time on both days, which translates as 5am ET/4am CST/2am PST.
As for the rest of the MLB clubs not travelling to Japan to begin their seasons, they will jumpstart the 2025 campaign on March 27.
The Dodgers will be hoping to successfully defend their World Series crown, while the Mets will be hoping their world record acquisition of Juan Soto from the Yankees will propel them a couple of steps further than last season and to a first Fall Classic triumph since 1986. The Yankees will also be looking to move on from Soto and end their own barren run of 16 years without a World Series. The Cubs, meanwhile, will be hoping that their season post-Tokyo pans out better than their first season opener in Tokyo, 25 years ago, when they proceeded to finish last in the National League Central with a 65-97 record.
