Thursday, October 31 MLB contingent to play in Far East SportsTicker |
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NEW YORK -- Barry Bonds and Ichiro Suzuki will lead a group of major leaguers to the Far East next month for an eight-game series against a team of all-stars from Japan. Bonds is the single-season record-holder in home runs, walks, intentional walks, slugging percentage and on-base percentage. Along with Bonds in the outfield will be Suzuki, a star in Japan before leaving for the Seattle Mariners in 2001. He won Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player honors in his first big league season. The Angels will have two participants, scrappy shortstop David Eckstein and left-hander Scott Schoeneweis. Art Howe, who this week was named manager of the New York Mets, will be the team's skipper. Rounding out the outfield will be Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees, Torii Hunter and Jacques Jones of the Minnesota Twins and Pat Burrell of the Philadelphia Phillies. The infield will include first basemen Jason Giambi of the Yankees and Derrek Lee of the Florida Marlins, second basemen Roberto Alomar of the Mets and Junior Spivey of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins and third basemen Eric Chavez of the Athletics and Eric Hinske of the Toronto Blue Jays. Paul Lo Duca of the Los Angeles Doders will split time with the Twins' A.J. Pierzynski at catcher. Pierzynski, a first-time All-Star this season, replaces the Giants' Benito Santiago. Schoeneweis is one of four relievers on the roster, joining Dodgers closer Eric Gagne, Twins left-handed setup man J.C. Romero and Diamondbacks right-hander Mike Fetters. There will be eight starting pitchers -- righthanders Bartolo Colon and Tomo Ohka of the Montreal Expos, Rodrigo Lopez of the Baltimore Orioles, Brad Penny of the Marlins, Brian Lawrence of the San Diego Padres, Miguel Batista of the Diamondbacks and Phillies left-hander Randy Wolf. The major leaguers will play eight games against a Japanese all-star team and one against the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka and Sapporo. |
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