While 49 percent of you were snoring and 49 percent of you were rolling out of bed as groggy and incoherent as Paula Abdul to get ready for work, about two percent of you actually set your alarm clocks for 6 a.m. to watch the major league baseball season opener Tuesday morning.

Yeah. If that doesn't seem right to you, I hear ya.

Nothing says baseball like a 6 a.m. wake-up call.

I don't know about you, but hot dogs just don't quite taste the same before the sun comes up.

I can see why Malt-O-Meal hasn't developed a Honey Nut Franks cereal. I can see why Post hasn't developed nacho cheese loops as a cornerstone to a healthy breakfast.

There should be a law against 6 a.m. baseball. Contact your congressman. Let's have hearings about this atrocity.

I need drugs to get up that early in the morning. I thought baseball was supposed to be drug free now.

At that ungodly hour, the only thing I want to steal is more Zs, not bases.

Besides, the first pitch of the baseball season should not be chucked 7,000 miles away in a dome that has as much charm as a Home Depot.

The last time I checked, Japan has its own professional baseball league, and it's becoming quite comparable to the American game.

The influx of good Japanese talent into the major leagues proves that.

So, why should we export our product over there?

I don't see the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers playing their season opener at PNC Park, although that game might be a sight better than the Buccos-Cubs opener.

Sure, Japan always has been a place where washed-up major league players — and Tom Selleck's movie career — go to die.

That league still has its share of American washouts who were probably better karaoke singers than major league players

Guys like Benny Agbayani, Aaron Guiel, Hiram Bocachica and Tuffy Rhoades are toiling away in the Far East.

Ryan Vogelsong is over there serving up gopher balls like he did for the Pirates. So is former Pirate-for-a-day Michael Restovich. I expect to see Jody Gerut and Jeromy Burnitz popping up soon — a kind of Pirates free-agent Japanese all-star team.

But it's obvious the quality of play has gotten much better in Japan.

Yet, baseball insists on taking the season opener away from American fans — well, at least the ones who like to sleep in.

Baseball has enough problems.

The sport already has trouble drawing younger fans into the game. When Jay Leno's monologue ends before a World Series game, it's hard for young-ins to stay glued to the TV until the final strike.

Maybe I'm old fashioned — the fact I used the word "young-ins" in the previous paragraph proves that I am — but kids should have access to the game.

By playing the first two games of the season at 6 a.m., baseball is saying sayonara to even more fans.

I choose sleep over baseball.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.