WBC Ends

Japan Wins 5-3

Japan thus defended its WBC title, but it was no easy pickings.

Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th, and Japan beat reigning Olympic champion South Korea 5-3 Monday night to win its second straight WBC title before a boisterous crowd of 54,846 at Dodger Stadium.

The Japanese won the inaugural tournament three years ago, beating Cuba 10-6 in the finals at Petco Park in San Diego.
South Korea had tied the game at 3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on Lee Bum-ho\'s run-scoring single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish (2-1), who got in trouble by issuing one-out walks to Kim Hyun-soo and Kim Tae-kyun, the 3-4 hitters in the lineup.

Darvish struck out Choo Shin-soo before Lee lined a 1-1 pitch into left field, with pinch runner Lee Jong-wook scoring easily from second.
Seiichi Uchikawa opened the 10th with a single, was sacrificed to second and took third on a single by Akinori Iwamura. After pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki popped out, Iwamura took second on defensive interference.
Suzuki managed to foul off a pitch after it had bounced then lined the eighth pitch of the at-bat from Lim Chang-yong (1-1) to center for his fourth hit. The Mariners' star entered with a .211 average and three RBIs in eight previous games.

Given the lead, Darvish worked around a leadoff walk to retire South Korea in the bottom of the 10th, setting off a wild celebration when he struck out Lee Jin-young to end the four-hour game.

I had 6 heart attacks watching the game from start to finish. Korea were a lot tougher than USA as it turned out and deservedly were in the finals. You don't really get a view of how tough a team plays until you sit there and watch the grinding at-bats and the dirty big flyballs. They swing the bats hard in South Korea. the power hitters in the heart of their lineup were every bit as scary as the best of the MLBers from any country. And they played great defense.

The Japanese knocked out 15 hits over the 10 innings and seemed to get a runner in scoring position in just about every inning, but somehow the Koreans kept squirming out of these tight spots and keeping Japan within distance. There were no blow out innings, no long sequences of hits. Every at-bat was contested hard by the Korean hurlers, and the Japanese never looked like they were going to run away with it.

The Koreans caught up with the Japanese twice, the second time in the bottom of the ninth with 2 down, and strikes on the hitter. They're mentally tough guys, and you just have to respect that- and the wonder of Baseball.

Hisashi Iwakuma was a revelation. The guy can really gather his strikes nice and low and pitches to both sides of the plate. The command was sufficient to stifle the Korean bats for 7-2/3 innings, holding them to 2 runs.

It was also the second time I've seen Yu Darvish pitch. His 9th inning was all tense and herky jerky, but his 10th was a lot more powerful and precise, even though he gave up a lead off walk. He's got great tools but he\'s got a way to go yet in the experience stakes. It was very uncomfortable watching Darvish walk 2 guys and give up a hit after letting the count go to 3-1.

Then there was Ichiro who battled the Korean closer Lim Chang-Yong for 8 pitches to slap a 2-run single, who I think is going to go down in the annals of baseball as having balls of steel. That was just a magnificent at-bat. Also, full credit to the Korean manager In-Sik Kim for not walking Ichiro who was 3-for-5 at point in the evening, his bat suddenly finding form in the heat of a tense final. It was a gutsy, honorable call.

The really telling stats are how the only team to beat Korea was Japan and the only team to beat Japan was Korea. They played each other 5 times in 17 days, while playing other teams in between, which in retrospect seems like a novelty. It was one heck of a tournament an I'm already exhausted.

WBC Update 23/03/09

So Much For That

Japan beat the USA to advance to the final. I have mixed feelings about all this because either team winning would have been good for me - but my glass is half empty when one of them loses too. :)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Daisuke Matsuzaka remained undefeated in the World Baseball Classic and defending champion Japan beat the United States 9-4 at Dodger Stadium on Sunday to reach the final against South Korea.
"Can you believe this? Look at the score. I feel so bad about this," Tom Lasorda, Hall of Fame manager and WBC global ambassador, said from his seat behind home plate.
"I'm very, very disappointed. We had high hopes. This is the second time we were supposed to win. We taught these people the game."
Instead, Japan gave the lessons on American soil.
Matsuzaka sent his country into Monday night's title game against South Korea, a 10-2 winner over Venezuela in Saturday's semifinal. Japan won the inaugural tournament in 2006, defeating Cuba in the final.
Akinori Iwamura's RBI triple was the key hit in a five-run fourth inning against starter Roy Oswalt, and the U.S. absorbed its first loss to Japan in major international play since the 2005 World Cup. The Americans had won four in a row, including an 8-4 victory in the bronze medal game at the Beijing Olympics.
"We didn't play as well defensively," U.S. manager Davey Johnson said. "We made it a ballgame through seven innings, and made some mistakes, walked the leadoff hitter in the eighth, and that's not the way you win ballgames."

Oh well. Derek Jeter was the goat with his error in the 8th. Not happy about that at all.  This comment is disturbing:

Jimmy Rollins went 4-for-4 with a walk and a two-out triple in the seventh. Masahiro Tanaka struck out Wright to end the inning.
"We had a lot of fun being an underdog, knowing that we were at somewhat of a disadvantage as far as having time to prepare," Rollins said. "It shows the support and passion these other countries have for baseball. In America, we have many sports, so our attention is at whichever sport season is going on at that time."

Come on Jimmy, you're the MLB! You can't be underdogs in playing NPB Japan! On the other hand Daisuke Matsuzaka continues to amaze as he is now 6-0 in WBC games. He lives for this stuff. So now it's Japan vs Korea part 5. *sigh*.

WBC Update

My Goodness The Dominicans Are Out

If it happened once, you say it's miraculous. The second time the Dutch beat the Dominican Republic, you have to scratch your head and wonder at the marvel that is the WBC. The Dutch even got close to toppling Puerto Rico. They're not beating about the bush, these Dutch 'honkballers'.

They don't have a big time fully pro-league in the Netherlands - just a bunch of sport nuts, very much like us Aussies. And here they are beating one of the treasure troves of talent. It's a little like... like if the Dutch beat the Windies of the 1970s and 1980s vintage in cricket, 2 one-dayers in a row.

“These guys, they did it,” David Ortiz said. “They beat us. I tell you, the whole world is shocked now. Even in Japan, they’re like ‘What the heck?’ in Japanese.”

The Dominicans were considered one of the favorites to win the event, but they could not overcome a team with a modest baseball tradition. The Dominicans had a speedy chance for redemption against the Netherlands, who jolted them, 3-2, on Saturday, and they did not grab it. After falling behind by 1-0 in the 11th, the Netherlands rallied with two runs in the bottom of the inning to grab the game.

“It’s a miracle,” the Netherlands Manager Rod Delmonico said. “That’s all I can tell you.”

As Ortiz stood near the first base dugout, he said that the players were in “in shock” and were pained by how difficult the jolting losses would be for their relatives from the Dominican. The Dominican fans did not expect their heroes to lose to the Netherlands, a country where soccer and swimming are more popular than baseball.

“Oh, God, thank God I don’t have to go back home for a while,” Ortiz said. “I’m telling you right now, in the Dominican, there had to be a blackout right now.”

That one tells that tale of the tape. I guess they can't blame it on A-Rod if he didn't play a single game.

Italy Upsets Canada

Mike Piazza is helping out the Italians. It seemed unlikely, but they've managed to win one for Mike, eliminating Canada.

Third baseman Alex Liddi, a native Italian who played for Seattle’s Class A team last season, was 2 for 4 with two runs batted in. Center fielder Chris Denorfia, a Connecticut native who plays for Oakland, was 4 for 4 with three doubles and two runs batted in. Both players sparkled on defense.

The loose eligibility rules of the World Baseball Classic recall the “Simpsons” episode in which the boss stuffs the company softball team with major leaguers to win a bet. The Italian team is stocked with players who were not born or raised in Italy.

Very quickly, though, the group has come together. The public-address announcer gives each name an Italian flourish, and players born in Royal Oak, Mich., like the veteran reliever Jason Grilli, sense a brotherhood.

“The guys who joined the Italian nationals, and the other guys they’ve compiled so wonderfully, you just could tell that this team was going to get along,” Grilli said, adding later: “I always say it the same way: when you are around Italians, you become more Italian. And you see why we take such pride in who we are.”

Grilli, who has worked more major league games than anyone else on the staff, was the pitching star on Monday. The loser on Saturday against Venezuela, Grilli blanked Canada for the final three and a third innings.

I'd hate to be the Canadians right now. Eliminated by Italy is a bit like being eliminated by Zimbabwe at the cricket World Cup. Then again I think that has happened to the Canadians in cricket too.

Aussies Fail To Upset Cuba

Fidel's boys squeaked by the Aussies 5-4. It's a lot closer than it's ever been between the two nations. The loss sends Australia to go back and face Mexico in an elimination round. You sort of hope the Aussies get a bit of Dutch mojo going and can repeat their thumping win against Mexcio.

UPDATE: Australia got an almighty shellacking from Mexcio in the return match and were promptly sent how, It puts into stark relief just how amazing the Dutch accmplishment at this tourney happens to be.

Today's WBC Update

Australia Thumps Mexico
Last time they did this WBC thing, Australia went home without making any impact on the world stage. This time, they have done some damage, to none other than Pool B 2nd favorites Mexico.

MEXICO CITY -- Chris Snelling homered twice and Ben Risinger hit a three-run shot as Australia powered past Mexico 17-7 on Sunday in the World Baseball Classic.

The game was stopped after eight innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.
Risinger, Lake Hughes and Andrew Graham each drove in three runs for Australia, which has no players in the majors and was considered one of the underdogs in Pool A. The Australians will play Cuba on Tuesday for a berth in the second round in San Diego.
Mexico will face South Africa in an elimination game.

"The main objective is to move on to the next round, " Mexico manager Vinicio Castilla said. "Today's game holds us back, but we haven't lost anything yet. We have to keep moving forward. ... No one expected this. We are going to stick together and try to get the next one."

Graham's RBI single in the sixth inning scored Brett Roneberg and broke a 7-all tie. Daniel Berg and Trent Oeltjen followed with run-scoring hits to make it 10-7, and Australia's lead was never in jeopardy the rest of the game.

That Andrew Graham, is Andrew Graham of the Kuringai Stealers, thank you very much! He\'s flying the green and old for both Ostraya and the Stealers. The 17-7 score line shows it was an utter slugfest in the late phases of the game, and amazingly, Australia got a mercy rule 8th inning win. Australia set a record for hits in a game for the fledgling WBC tournament on the way to the win. Now, all they have to do is beat Pool B Favorites Cuba or South Africa to get to round 2. Hey, why not?

Thanks to Walk-Off HBP, coach at the Stealers for that heads-up.

Now, is the Sydney Morning Herald reporting this historic win? No.



UPDATE: Here's The Australian's take. It's the AFP version.

USA Crushes Venezuela

It's one of those games where you think the USA is doing to Venezuela what GWB wanted to do to Chavez. :)

It was an 87-mph fastball thrown by a 25-year-old Venezuelan right-hander who's never sniffed the major leagues. And when Adam Dunn saw it, he smoked it, and then a small smirk pursed his lips as he looked into his home dugout.

"I thought that was going to hit the top of the dome," second baseman Dustin Pedroia said.

It didn't reach that high, but Dunn's mammoth shot to right field in the seventh inning of this World Baseball Classic game seemed to be the punctuation mark in Team USA's 15-6 win over Venezuela on Sunday night. The Americans will be advancing to the second round of this tournament, and in their first two games, they've proven they can win close in a hostile, playoff-like atmosphere in a packed dome, and via blowout before 13,000 people, most of whom were yelling, whistling and waving flags in support of Venezuela.

On Saturday, it was J.J. Putz closing a 6-5 win against Team Canada in front of a raucous, pro-Canada home crowd at the Rogers Centre, a scene that led Putz to say it was the most intense experience of his baseball career. A night later, it was a cumulative effort by a Team USA lineup that pumped out 16 hits and 15 runs against seven Venezuelan pitchers.

Now, if you really want to see a classic Derek Jeter interview, watch the video on the page. The Yankee captain and now Captain America actually mouths the classic 'one-game-at-a-time' cliche. Talk about Mr. Dependable.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

A-Rod Circus Continues

This week saw the WBC begin, and with it, some Yankees scattered to national squads. Jeter went to captain Team America and even took on the Yankees in a warm up match. A-Rod went to the Dominican squad, watched Jose Reyes and decided he looked the like of Reyes and said he wished he was with the Yankees. It was a colossally stupid thing to say because the press went to town on it.

After that, A-Rod went to meet the MLB authorities about his steroid admission, following which nothing seemed to come of it, except that now he is going to get hip surgery and will be out 10 weeks. During the last 72 hours it's gone form a cyst to a torn labrum; from being able to play through the season with the injury, to must-operate-now.

One imagines that the MLB reps told A-Rod he has to take 10 weeks off, even if it wasn't in their power to suspend him for steroid use when there weren't any regulations against it. A-Rod in turn probably said, "fine, in that case I'll get my hip looked at because it didn't get any better this winter".

Who knows?

The guy seems to be a headline magnet no matter what he does, and he does choose to do and say some stupid things that by their nature make him newsworthy in ways almost tangential to playing baseball. One wonders what kind of movie Billy Crystal would make out of the Derek Jeter- & A-Rod thing, having seen his take on Mantle and Maris in '61*'.

The media is jumping the gun in trying to find a replacement, but there is no replacing A-Rod in the lineup. That's the point of his $275m over 10 year contract. A-Rod didn't grow on some tree, and even if he did, there's not another one waiting to be picked.

World Baseball Classic Begins

It's here again, the fast-tracked arbitrary international professionals' Baseball Comp. For what it's worth, this is the one Ichiro takes seriously - he's never taken any interest in the Olympics, but he's always been dreaming of this kind of competition. It's fast-tracked in the sense that it's only been 3 years since the last one (my, how time flies!) but from here on in, it is once every 4 years.

Japan won the last one and kicked off this tourney with a shutout over China. Korea beat Taiwan and everything is rolling now. Things are going as predicted even as we speak.Apparently it's all part of a bid to repatriate baseball at the IOC. I can't imagine two organisations more diametrically opposed in attitude than professional baseball the world over and the largely amateurism-worshipping Olympic movement.

I enjoyed baseball's moment at the Olympics, but it just seems wrong to have those guys compete alongside people who need sponsorship from Uncle Toby's to live while training. Even having professional Tennis in the fold with the likes of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer alongside th Uncle Tobys Non-Stars is pretty daft. Worse still, even if say, Derek Jeter  or A-Rod were to turn up, it's not like the Olympic audience is going to appreciate them more. Furthermore, winning the gold medal for their country at the Olympics is not going to be more important than... even the WBC. So really, they should all collectively let that one go. Baseball ought not go back to the Olympics - and it's no great loss., now that there's the WBC

The only thing is that the IOC should reinstate Women's Softball. There's no reason why those Uncle-Toby gals should be punished for Barry Bonds' and A-Rod's and Roger Clemens' perceived faults.

Outrage In Pakistan


Not to do with Baseball now, but Cricket. The week's big news was how a bunch of terrosist unleashed a hale of bullets on the visiting Sri Lankan team's bus. Some guards and drivers were killed, some players were injured. The greater part of it hs been the shock of how they actually took to shooting professional athletes. Apparently there was a common understanding that athletes were off-limits.

I had no idea such a tacit agreement was in place. It was probably more wishful thinking.  That attack has torn asunder such day-dreams about world terrorism, and with it the notion that the Australians were somehow cowardly in not wanting to tour Pakistan. They had good reasons, as it turns out. Pakistan is likely to miss out on hosting a part of the 2011 World Cup. It's a total mess.

On another level, you wonder why it took them so long to attack professional sport. It's the pinnacle of our capitalist entertainment-led lifestyle ideology. There's us sitting in our couches watching the big-screen TV, eating our fatty foods and scoffing nutrition drinks, as professional athletes earning mega-bucks do some athletic thing on screen; meanwhile angry bearded jihadist terrorists with minimal education and nutrition live in muddy caves polishing their AK-47s wanting to kill us all and take it all back to the Dark Ages.