NEW YORK (Kyodo) Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has proposed that the champions of Japan and the United States play a global World Series, his Japanese baseball counterpart Ryozo Kato said Wednesday.
Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Kato told reporters in New York that the MLB commissioner made the suggestion during their meeting in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
"I was surprised. Mr. Selig said he wants to realize the baseball series between the two countries before his tenure ends (in 2012)," the former Japanese ambassador to the United States said, adding that Selig described the holding of the series as his "lifework."
Kato welcomed the proposal, saying, "We should study the proposed series as a realistic issue." He plans to discuss the proposal further when Selig visits Japan in July.