2014 All-Star Baseball Series Between U.S., Japan Begins Tuesday

Nov 10, 2014 09:33 PM EST

For the first time in eight years, Major League Baseball is sending a team of top stars to Japan to compete against Japan's top players in what is called the 2014 All-Star Series. All seven games are scheduled for broadcast on the MLB Network.

The first game was of the weeklong series was scheduled to being 4 a.m. ET in the U.S. MLB all-stars were playing a Japanese team made up of players from the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers in a preliminary game at Koshien Stadium., Osaka.

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The five-game all-star series officially begins Wednesday at Osaka's Kyocera Dome between full squads of U.S. and Japanese stars. Starting Friday, the series moves to the Tokyo Dome through the weekend, and contests wrap up on November 18 at the Sapporo Dome. MLB all-stars then play a final game against Team Japan, known as Samurai Japan, at Okinawa Cellular Stadium on November 20.

MLB sent an all-star team to Japan annually from 1988 to 2006. MLB won nine of 10 full series, with a record of 48-20. Japan's only series win came in 1990.

Although Albert Pujols and Bryce Harper dropped out after being listed on the U.S. roster, many top MLB players remained, including Jeremy Guthrie, Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar of the American League champion Kansas City Royals.

Notable MLB players include Yasiel Puig, Jose Altuve, Robinson Cano, Evan Longoria, Justin Morneau, Carlos Santana and Chris Carter. The MLB team also contained several Japanese players who now play in the U.S. That number included Hisashi Iwakuma and Tsuyoshi Wada, each of whom starred in the Japan leagues before crossing the Pacific to play for the Seattle Mariners and Chicago Cubs respectively.

Filling out the MLB pitching roster took some work because the regular season just ended six weeks ago. It's a mixture mainly of journeymen pitchers although Iwakuma was an all-star. A former star hurler for the Kinetsu Buffalos in Osaka and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, Iwakuma said he looked forward to pitching in his hometown, Osaka, during the series.

Here is the schedule (all times U.S. ET):