PHOENIX -- As a boy, Ichiro Suzuki was such a big fan of Ken Macha that the future Seattle star bought the glove the American used while playing in Japan.

Then he got rid of it fast -- because Suzuki started committing errors.

Suzuki, now the Mariners' top hitter, and Macha, Oakland's manager, were having fun leading up to the season-opening series between their teams in Japan next week.

Now that's gone. The teams were supposed to leave for Tokyo on Wednesday but they're staying in the United States after commissioner Bud Selig canceled the trip Tuesday because of the threat of war in Iraq.

The series in the Tokyo Dome were Oakland's home games, so the Athletics planned to put tickets on sale Thursday for the makeup games on April 3 and June 30 in the Coliseum.

"We're starting from scratch,'' A's president Mike Crowley said.

The Mariners and A's teams will still face each other to start the season, on April 1 in Oakland. And they have shuffled around their exhibition schedules to add more games.

The teams play each other in Phoenix on Thursday, when they would have just been getting settled in Tokyo.

Coaches for both teams were determining how to best use players the remainder of the spring to make sure they got both adequate at-bats, innings and rest.

"We were in that hurry-up mode, and now we can pick some spots and give some guys some days off and back off a bit,'' Macha said Wednesday.

He announced last week that left-hander Barry Zito would start the opener in Japan on March 25, but said Wednesday that "Zito starting on Opening Day is up in the air.''

Right-hander Tim Hudson might be the Opening Day starter now, which would mean he'd probably be followed by four lefties.

"We're by far way more ahead of schedule than we have been in the past,'' Hudson said. "It's good. There's not going to be the long travel and the jet lag back and forth.

"The way those games were over there, it was making our rotation crazy. I was coming out of the bullpen.''

Seattle manager Bob Melvin, whose club arrived at spring training a week early because of the Japan trip, expressed his disappointment Wednesday that the series had been called off. But he said it might help the Mariners in the long run.

"We felt we were a natural fit, but it wasn't meant to be,'' Melvin said, referring to his team's three Japanese players. "We're fine with where we are. It actually is easier to map out. We know exactly where we're going to be and now we have games slated all the way through and everything is a little more definite.''

As for how the story went with Macha and Suzuki, Seattle's leadoff hitter and right fielder supposedly had had a poster of Macha on his wall. But Suzuki squashed that rumor in a hurry, clarifying that he had actually tried the same glove as Macha.

"That's flattering,'' Macha said. "The MVP and a Gold Glove winner. It's the only time my glove would be associated with a Gold Glove winner.''

Macha played four years in Suzuki's hometown of Nagoya.

"I call him 'Homie,' because I played where he grew up,'' Macha said.

Suzuki was happy to hear Macha had been promoted to replace Art Howe as A's manager when Howe left for the New York Mets after last season. Both Macha and Suzuki looked forward to seeing the response of Japanese fans in the Tokyo Dome, known as the "Big Egg,'' and seeing old friends, but they understood baseball's decision.

"For my generation there was a Dragons marching fight song,'' Suzuki said of Macha's former team. "Ken Macha was the No. 3 hitter and his name was in the song. I didn't sing it but I had it on tape and listened to it a lot.''

With both teams now having more time to prepare for opening day, there's a chance for players to get healthy. Oakland center fielder Chris Singleton will take three days off to rest his tight right hamstring. Seattle catcher Dan Wilson is nursing a strained oblique muscle.

"Competitively, it's probably better we're staying home,'' A's general manager Billy Beane said.