R & R it wasn't: a trip to Japan offered little rest for the Devil Rays and the Yankees--and no relaxation for the New Yorkers. How quickly the teams settle back into a normal schedule will shape the starts of their seasons.(Baseball)

There was a decided give and take to opening the major league baseball season in Japan. The Yankees never appeared comfortable while playing the first official games of 2004 in Tokyo. The Devil Rays, on the other hand, were much looser.

It surely had something to do with expectations. The Yankees arrived as one of the greatest offensive teams ever assembled, with George Steinbrenner's acquisition of Alex Rodriguez elevating the already-powerful club to an even loftier level. The lowly Devil Rays were, well, the lowly Devil Rays.

New York's opening-day starter, Mike Mussina, seemed to speak for many players when he wondered aloud about the logic of beginning the season so far from home. Although many Yankees have talked glowingly of the trip since returning to the United States, it appeared as if they seldom took delight in the culture and the pageantry that they experienced. Instead, they seemed overburdened with the pressure to win--as might be expected of a team receiving so much hype. The Devil Rays exhibited no such anxiety.

Tampa Bay center fielder Rocco Baldelli stood in front of his locker with a towel playfully tied around his torso like a sumo wrestler's loincloth, and he talked of how the rare opportunity to play in Japan could help build team chemistry. "In spring training, you've got 65 guys going every which way," he said, "but here you have to hang out together and eat every meal together. There are so many new guys this year, I think later we'll feel we came together in Japan."

The question of just how both teams will feel later--how they will hold up physically after this trip--is perhaps the key question coming out of the two-game set. We know the Yankees will continue to be under a microscope and that the Devil Rays have a chance to move up in the A.L. East--but might the grueling travel to and from Japan take an ongoing toll on both clubs?

Japan's passion for baseball always has presented American organizers of games there with the quandary of how to balance the rigors of travel across the globe with the allure of tantalizing profits. When Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth led a team of All-Stars to Japan after the 1934 season, they endured a long, arduous ship ride. Yankees broadcaster Ken Singleton remembers the poor planning that required him to play a game the day after he reached Japan for a goodwill tour in 1979 with the Orioles.

The Yankees and Devil Rays weren't playing exhibition games, though. For the second time in four years, games in Tokyo counted in the standings; the Devil Rays won the first, 8-3, and the Yankees took the second, 12-1.