As you're reading this (or earlier this morning), the Major League Baseball season officially kicked off in Tokyo, Japan.  It's all part of baseball's worldwide marketing effort. Market your product to a global fan base... increase the probability of people willing to spend money on MLB products.

We here at JSF fan hunting headquarters have taken a similar approach. We need to expand our product. Why should Americans be typecasted as the only mulleted rednecks and drunken monkeys in athletic venues throughout the world?  Fortunately, the emergence of Major League Baseball in Japan has given us the perfect excuse to explore the fan talent overseas.

A few months ago, we posted a column that featured some common fan signs found throughout our home land.

However, yesterday we received a fantastic fan sign (hat tip: Jason from NY) from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Not everything translates seamlessly across cultures. Proper names usually do, though. I suppose it's a nice looking sign - way more effort than 95% of the cardboard/Sharpie masterpieces seen here. We acknowledge the polite, yet completely unnecessary, "Please" foreword. And we certainly appreciate the effort and reference to the popular American "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

But, "Park Fenway"?

They were so close.

(+2 points awarded for not taking an obvious dig at the gentleman on the left.)