"We know that baseball and cricket bear some similarities,’’ said Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig on the day of a once-in-a-100-year event, ‘‘but it is our hope that opening series will allow you a better glimpse into the American sporting soul.

‘‘An historian named Jacques Barzun once famously observed: ‘Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball’.’’

Those words were delivered two nights before the REAL opening night. Selig, spoke at a corporate lunch at Ivy and then headed to the Sydney Cricket Ground to witness history. For the first time in a century, a Major League Baseball team, the Los Angeles Dodgers no less, competed on Australian shores. Their historic two-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, beginning on Saturday night, is all but sold out.

But Thursday night’s warm-up game against Team Australia was a tougher sell. It’s not just the NRL struggling to attract crowds. The bays of empty seats may have suggested that Sydneysiders, the fickelest of fans, shared the sentiments of Zack Greinke, the Dodgers pitcher who said he held ‘‘absolutely zero excitement’’ about the initiative.

The turnout meant those wanting to tick eating a metre-long hot dog – apparently $40 well spent – off the bucket list didn’t need to queue long to do so.

The Dodgers are worth $220 million, but their celebrity has not gone to their heads. When the touring English cricket team visited the same venue a few short months ago, they had a rider – including an 82-page list of culinary demands – that would have made Madonna blush. It did nothing for their performance. The Dodgers arrived and there wasn’t a single serving of piri-piri breaded tofu with tomato salsa to be seen. Unlike the Poms, they will leave the venue with a win.

There were opening-night nerves for all involved. One of Team Australia’s opening pitches, delivered by Ryan Searle, was so wild it flew over the catcher’s head and thudded into the hoardings. And at the bottom of the first, fellow Aussie Brad Harman swung from the rafters and connected, only for the bat to be split asunder.

Yet, despite all odds, the hosts were on the board first. In the bottom of the third Mitch Dening became the first man to round the home plate. Australia 1. Dodgers 0. It was the portents of an upset of monumental proportions and also an indication of just how far this nation has come playing another’s pastime. Last year, reigning Australian Baseball League champions Canberra took out the Asia series, defeating countries whose love of the game matches that of the US. There is a reason the MLB bankrolls the game here in exchange for the cream of our talent.

And then, at the bottom of the sixth, a second run for the Aussies. A team comprised partly of semi-professionals with the odd delivery driver, worth a combined $1 million, was giving it to the glamour boys. But then Dodger Yasiel Puig hit Matthew Williams into the Victor Trumper stand at the top of the eighth to fracture the fairytale. Then a slew of Aussie errors and Dodger runs. The Big Leaguers stormed home to win 4-2.

It may not have ended the way Australia had hoped but the fact we were here is a victory in itself.