Major League Baseball won’t let you see any of its content on YouTube in America, but they’ve just announced a new deal with YouTube to show full games and other video in Japan. A joint press release says its the biggest premium sports partnership in the history of YouTube. YouTube viewers in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and Russia also get access to highlight clips and archives in the deal.

The big part of the Japan YouTube deal is offering free on demand full game video from the past two seasons, some classic games, and highlight packages of Japanese-born MLB players. Games from this season become available within 36 hours of being played.  In addition to historic performances from Japanese players, MLB also thinks Japanese YouTube viewers would be into watching Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s record and Randy Johnson throw a perfect game in 2004.

Japanese YouTube viewers are also perceived as being really into geography and stadiums. To watch a specific team’s videos, you first have to find that team’s logo on a google-powered map of the United States:

When you click on your team’s logo a giant baseball appears on a satellite.  When you zoom in on the giant baseball, a satellite image of the now defunct Metrodome appears, and allows you to watch Twins games:

Why do the Japanese get to have all the fun? Just because MLB Advanced Media runs “the most successful paid-subscription service on the Web“?