Major League Baseball has done a great job of marketing the game in Japan by sending numerous teams to that Asian nation, and now MLB affiliates in the US will get the same opportunity with Japanese baseball. The Los Angeles Angels will be in the middle of this opportunity, as an Angels affiliate will get to host a barnstorming teams from Japan as part of a new program.
One of the initial contests will feature the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Angels’ Double A affiliate. They’ll host a Japanese team, the Toyota Red Cruisers, which will mark the first time a Japanese Industrial League (JIL) team has played an exhibition game in the US.
The game is part of the Trash Pandas’ Global Baseball Series, which was described in the team’s statements as an "international community-driven cultural exchange event." The other participants will be Alabama A&M University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, with the Red Cruisers providing the international opposition.
The JIL is considered a developmental league in Japan, i.e., it’s an approximate equivalent to MLB’s minor league systems where premier players get experience and hone their skills as part of their path to a professional career. Toyota does operate a large manufacturing plant in Huntsville, hence the connection to the Alabama schools that will be participating.
The Globals Baseball Series (GBS) is the brainchild of Trash Pandas’ executive Hiroshi “Morris” Morioka, according to Benjamin Hill of MLB.com, who did a writeup about the program. Morioka is in his second season with the Trash Pandas, and he’s also worked with professional basketball teams in both Japan and the US>
"In the 2010s I was in Japan working with Toyota's basketball team, Toyota Alvark Tokyo, so I had a good relationship with Toyota Motor Manufacturing," he said. "I came [to the Trash Pandas] thinking I can do something here, because our baseball field is Toyota Field."
There are 90 industrial teams in Japan, according to Morioka, and he considers the Red Cruisers one of the best. This will be baseball Japanese-style, so American audiences will get to see something completely different and very unique. The executive said it represents, "baseball, Japan style."
The Global Baseball Series starts on March 30, and it will conclude on April 1. It’s basically the equivalent of the exhibition games MLB teams play before the start of their season with unusual opponents, and the Trash Pandas opening their 2026 campaign at Toyota Field on April 3 against the Biloxi Shuckers, which is the Milwaukee Brewers Double-A team.