Dodgers, D-backs slug it out in Australia

SYDNEY, March 21, 2014 (AFP) - America's Major League Baseball launches its opening day series this weekend in Australia with an intriguing match up between feuding rivals, the cashed-up Los Angeles Dodgers and the less endowed Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Sydney Cricket Ground has been transformed to a MLBapproved baseball field at a cost of Aus$2 million ($1.8 million), with 250 tonnes of clay especially shipped in from San Diego for the pitcher's mound and infield.

The SCG, where Australia wrapped up a 5-0 Ashes cricket series win over England last January, has not hosted a baseball match since the Chicago White Sox played a 1914 exhibition there.

Australia's first-ever tilt at

America's Major League Baseball launches its opening day series this weekend in Australia with an intriguing match up between feuding rivals, the cashed-up Los Angeles Dodgers and the less endowed Arizona Diamondbacks

hosting a major league doubleheader, on Saturday and Sunday, comes after showcase matches in Japan in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, as well as openers in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

The Dodgers, owned by an investment group headed by basketball legend Magic Johnson, boast the biggest payroll in the MLB at $220 million, which is almost two-and-a-half times more than the Phoenix-based Diamondbacks.