World Baseball Classic [R]

ho-hum.

2 more weeks until we can all watch some real baseball

I've been following this event, and following this thread (without comment, as i have no expert observations to contribute)--but i did want to stop by and offer my congratulations to Joe and Fbaezer on the success of their countrymen. For as much as Americans may adopt a bad attitude, this is good for baseball.

Salute ! ! !

About American attitude: the ESPN commentators (in Spanish) quoted the Korean coach saying: "In Asia we have scouted Major League Baseball for years, and learned from them. In America they didn't bother to scout us and learn from us".

Anyway, I think it was fair that the US was eliminated, since they got a little help from their umpire friend against Japan (and again, twice, by the same ump, yesterday against Mexico).

To see how important this was for us, a TV commentator said last night that "June 17th is avenged". I let the Americans find out about June 17th.

I was glad the US lost. Too many Yankees on the team (the NY kind). The US winning might have boded well for a NYY win this summer...

Thanks Set, although we knew what kind of team we had. The mexicans sported a t-shirt previous to the Canada game that said "We already know it .... Let the world know it", though that statement might apply more to Korea right now.

I wish the tourney comes back with more mlb team support as well as advertisement. I also hope mlb teams did take notice of the talent some players from lesser known areas have.

So you want to boast, fbaezer?
I was on the "Selección cat. Colt de Tijuana" and our manager was Gilberto Gil, one day on training Benji Gil showed up and helped his brother with the training.
I also got to play amateur baseball with Adrián González and his brother Édgar González (not the pitcher but the utility player from this Serie del Caribe). I also played whiffle ball, basketball, soccer, football, board games and nintendo with them.

But, may I ask why you were chosen as the opening ball thrower?

I gotta thank set, too. And hey, Team USA lost to both Nafta partners!

Joe, you've beating me in boasting... only one of my little league pals made it to the Mexican league, and didn't shine because they overworked his arm.

I was chosen as the editor of a so-called "national" newspaper. I wore our newpaper's baseball uniform... I was the second baseman of the team.
Too bad it was the Diablos, me being a Tigres fan since the times of the One Million Peso infield.

reading along..

Before the tourney people were asking: What if Cuba won it all?

Well now Cuba has to beat Japan to be the 'World Champions'. Will be an exciting game.

I personally wanted Korea to advance but they lost when it mattered the most.

I am torn on the final.
My heart wants Cuba to win.
My rationale wants Fidel not to have a reason to boast, since baseball is the "circenses" part when there is little "pane" for the people under his dictatorship.

During the Winter Olympics, the Canadian Men's Hockey team never made it to the podium. Those millionaires had no answer to the high calibre of international hockey.
The same happened in San Diego. Just showing up with an arrogant attitude is not enough anymore. In a true 'World Series' one has to play well to get to the final and win.
.........................................
Japan beats Cuba to rule baseball world
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Tuesday, March 21, 2006
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San Diego -- Now that was a World Series.
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With apologies to the Chicago White Sox, who beat the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball's version of The Greatest Show on Earth, a truer display of the game's best global talent was showcased at San Diego's Petco Park.
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Japan, which advanced to the semifinals when Team USA was eliminated by Mexico on Thursday, clearly can declare itself the world's elite team, based on its performance in the World Baseball Classic that ended with Monday night's 10-6 victory over Cuba.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/21/SPGQVHRJRV1.DTL

congrats to japan.

my problem with legitimating the WBC is the inane rules it was played under.

Pitchers may throw no more than 65 pitches in any Round 1 game, 80 in Round 2, and 90 thereafter. Pitchers must get 4 days off between appearances if he threw 50 pitches or 1 day off if he threw 30 or pitched 2 straight days. In Rounds 1 and 2, a "mercy rule" will end a game after 7 innings if a team is ahead by 10 or more runs, or after 5 innings if the lead is 15 or more. Games not completed in 14 innings shall be a tie.

a pitcher tossing a no-hitter is forced to come out when his pitch-count hits a certain level?
tie games??
mercy rules???
that's not baseball -- that's a baseball exhibition...

let me just add this:
my opinion of the WBC would be no different if the US had won...

With all of that, i cannot but agree . . .


Why, next thing you know, they'll have designated hitters--you might as well be watchin' the Bosox, or one of those other teams which bilks the public by claiming to play base-sue-ball . . .

This contest should have been called 'World Series'. At least it has more than one country taking part in it.

The so-called World Series is a joke. To back paddle, it has been said that the name derived from a newspaper in New York, an urban myth.

It smacks of monumental arrogance to pretend to be world champions. No other country would even think of it .

http://www.snopes.com/business/names/worldseries.asp

Oh no! George Steinbrenner has taken over RP's avatar!

I have no problem with the World Series name. All the teams now have players from several countries. What's the problem?

The "problem" is the teams are only from the US and Canada, it might not be the best representation of baseball talent worldwide, it took a hell lotta years for the first asian player to break in, for example, and when he did he stunned the league.

No other domestic league that I know of, except those of the US and Canada, say they're the world champions even if they have players from several countries.

I don't have a problem with them keeping the name as it's tradition, but someone made the mistake of naming it like that.

But detano, it cannot be named a World Series since it wasn't a series.

The first "World Series" was not a series, either--it was a single game. In 1903, baseball was only beginning to take hold in the former Spanish territories which we stole, fair and square, in a war which is only rivalled in our history by the Mexican war as an example of beating up on a weaker opponent to take what we wanted.

It has only been since the Second World War that baseball has become popular in Asia. Taken all-in-all, before the Great War, the World Series was just that, because professional baseball did not exist any where else in the world.

Well, I guess the WBC, if it survives, may be the solution. Since the American teams will continue to have non-American players, I'm not sure how much sense it would be to have, say, the Yankees play Japan or the Dominican Republic...

I think there could be a place for national team
tournaments as well as tournaments for club teams.