Sports history will be made next Wednesday and Thursday when the first official Major League Baseball games ever to be played outside North America will take place right here in Japan. The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs will square off at the Tokyo Dome to open the Year 2000 National League championship season, and it is a hot ticket.
The schedule calls for the two MLB clubs to play one exhibition game each against Japan's Yomiuri Giants and Seibu Lions on March 27 and 28, as a tuneup to the real thing when the big-league rivals play each other March 29 and 30.
The Mets, led by manager Bobby Valentine and featuring star players in catcher Mike Piazza, third baseman Robin Ventura, shortstop Rey Ordonez and pitchers Al Leiter and the newly acquired Mike Hampton, made the National League Championship Series as a wildcard team in 1999, taking the Atlanta Braves to a sixth game in a nail-biter of a series. New York is expected to be a postseason contender again in 2000.