I’ve been following the World Baseball Classic the last few weeks. I think its a really great idea, given the international nature of baseball now.
If you haven’t been following along, and you probably haven’t, the US didn’t win. In fact, we didn’t make the finals. In fact, we didn’t make the semi-finals. In fact, we barely made it out of the first round after we lost to Canada (Canada!!! In baseball!! and they didn’t have Eric Gagne pitching!!!) We also lost to Mexico, Korea, and only through the grace of a horrible ump, beat Japan.
Japan beat Cuba in the finals, which was suprising only in that they beat a really good Dominican team to get there. There was only 1 Major League player starting in the final game.
What the WBC showed is that the US doesn’t own baseball anymore. Hopefully, it will spur more players to come out of countries like Korea and Panama who can field good, but not great teams.
As for the US, someone should punch George Steinbrenner in the face.
One reply on “On a 10-6 decision, the winner is……Japan”
Someone should punch Bud Selig in the face. Yeah, its good for international PR especially since baseball is axed from olympic competition, but the way its structured doesn’t make much sense.