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No worries? Scheduling trip to Australia far from easy

LOS ANGELES -- The landmark announcement that the Dodgers will play the D-backs in Australia to open the 2014 regular season comes with some logistical challenges, as Dodgers president Stan Kasten described.

The Dodgers will play a Spring Training game in Arizona on Sunday, March 16, then fly 17 hours and arrive in Sydney on the following Tuesday morning. The team will be off Wednesday, have a workout Thursday, play an exhibition game against a local Australian team on Friday, then be the visiting team against Arizona for the first two regular-season games at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground.

The Dodgers will fly back to California after the Sunday game, arriving the same day. They will be off Monday, work out Tuesday and Wednesday, play three Freeway Series exhibition games against the Angels on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then have an off-day Sunday before resuming the regular season on Monday.

Kasten confirmed that players will receive a payment above their salary for participating in the series through an agreement negotiated by the Players Association. Kasten said the club could schedule a second exhibition game in Australia if it chooses.

Austin Laymance is an associate reporter for MLB.com. Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com.
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