Japan

Giving back is great Mike DiGiovanna Los Angeles Times The pluses of playing regular-season games overseas far outweigh the minuses, especially as they pertain to Japan. Considering how much that country has contributed to Major League Baseball over the past two decades — Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki, now Yu Darvish, extensive media coverage of the game and fertile marketing terrain — it's important that the game give something back. It's good for younger, less-traveled players and those living more of a sheltered existence, to gain the cultural experience of going to another country, of visiting areas hit by the 2011 tsunami and connecting with families of storm victims.

Japanese cultural exchange student Minami Tajima remembers one of her first visits to an American restaurant. She and about two dozen other students from Japan visited Anne Arundel County last year, and after she befriended Arundel High School student Taylor Niemetz, the two went to a steakhouse in the Waugh Chapel area. "So this is a Japanese restaurant," Niemetz said. "They're Chinese,'" Tajima replied, referring to the cooks. Talk about cultural awareness. Still, Tajima, a student from Sagami Ono High School in a city near Tokyo, said she enjoys American food.

The Baltimore region showed nearly double-digit growth in export goods and services in 2010, with room to grow, according to a study released Thursday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based public policy organization. The report, titled "Export Nation," reviewed data collected from the 100 largest U.S. metro areas. Baltimore was ranked 27th, with exports valued at $9.7 billion. U.S. exports, led by manufacturing, grew faster than at any time since 1997, said Emilia Istrate, the study's lead author.

The Orioles' new starting pitcher, Tsuyoshi Wada, likely won't make his Camden Yards debut until the first full week of April, and it won't be known for several months how well he'll make the transition from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball to major league baseball. But the first impression of the 30-year-old, soft-tossing left-hander is that he'll work to assimilate - as evidenced by his opening statement Thursday at his introductory news conference at Camden Yards, which he delivered in English.

Two of Dan Duquette's primary goals when he took over as the Orioles' executive vice president last month were to immediately improve the club's starting rotation and strengthen its presence in the international marketplace. He might have done both with one move. According to an industry source, the Orioles agreed to terms Tuesday with 30-year-old Japanese left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada on a two-year, $8.15 million deal that also includes a $5 million option for 2014. Duquette and the Orioles have not confirmed the pact.

Cal Ripken Jr. is on a U.S. State Department visit to the earthquake-damaged parts of Japan.  We will post his videos from the trip here.  You can get more information on the trip on Cal's blog.                    

The Cal Ripken World Series opened for the 12th time Friday night, the ninth time in Aberdeen, with a ceremony in front of hundreds of fans from the United States and other countries at the Ripken Academy in Aberdeen. Players, coaches, ambassadors and bat boys from all 16 teams paraded around the complex into Ripken Stadium, before returning to Cal Sr.'s Yard, where each team was introduced and each manager was awarded a participation plaque. While parading was going on, students from Chung's Martial Arts displayed board breaking moves and other forms from Tae Kwon Do. Fourteen-year-old Melanie Smith performed the national anthem.

While Otakon will be following its standard all-Japan-all-the-time formula again this year, organizers are stretching their cultural boundaries a bit. "We're actually starting to focus on some Korean pop culture as well," says Otakon spokesman Victor Albisharat. "That's been a growing market. " Among the offerings is the U.S. premiere of "Quick," from South Korean director Jo Beom-goo. "The best way I could describe is kind of a Korean version of 'Speed,'" Albisharat says. "Basically, the premise of this one is a delivery guy on a motorcycle, his first package is actually a bomb.

It seems Baltimoreans fell in love with the United States women's national team during its run through the World Cup this past month. According to Mac Nwulu, a member of ESPN's public relations team , Baltimore had the highest overnight rating for any U.S. city during Sunday's title game, when the United States fell to Japan in penalty kicks, 3-1, after ending overtime tied at 2. Baltimore (12.3) was nearly four points higher than the national overnight rating of 8.6. The rest of the top-five markets were San Diego (11.8)

WEDNESDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup Quaker State 400 (T) SPEEDNoon C. base. TD Ameritrade Home Run Derby (T) CBSSN9 TD Ameritrade Home Run Derby (T) CBSSN2 a.m. MiLB Triple-A All-Star Game MLB9 Triple-A All-Star Game (T) MLB2 a.m. C. base. Michigan@Iowa (T) BIGTEN11:30 WNBA Phoenix@Minnesota NBA1 Phoenix@Minnesota (T)