TOKYO -- U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, who once was president of the Texas Rangers when President George Bush was the club's managing general partner, welcomed representatives of the Red Sox and the Oakland A's, assorted baseball officials and a small group of reporters to his home for a ceremony and lunch this morning.

"There is nothing that unites [Japan and the United States] like baseball,'' he said in his remarks. "Baseball is the best export the U.S. has ever made to Japan and it still pays dividends.''

Schieffer spoke in a room where Gen. Douglas McArthur first met with Emperor Hirohito, and where, a decade earlier, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were once honored.

Commissioner Bud Selig spoke and noted that the season opener between the Sox and the A's served as "a great testament to what [baseball] is doing internationally.''

Both the A's and the Sox presented Schieffer with signed jerseys. Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, who said the Sox were honored to be here, joked that he hoped the ambassador would wear his Sox jersey over the Oakland one.

Representing the Sox: pitchers Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Tim Wakefield, manager Terry Francona, president/CEO Larry Lucchino, general manager Theo Epstein and principal owner John Henry -- among others.

Billy Beane, the general manager of the A's, conducted a double-take when he spotted me.

"They'll let anyone in here, I guess,'' said Beane. "No wonder so much takes places in embassies all over the world.''

Food was delicious -- roast beef, scallops in ginger sauce, crab cakes and tuna steaks in tomato salsa -- and everyone agreed that it was a nice change to be offered forks with which to eat.