I am jumping up and down....incredibly happy...

Guys...I know you are against the world championship but stop to think just a second beyond your horizons...

theres a world out there beyond your borders that would like to see some great baseball just this once...you have it galore the rest of the year...probabilities of them being injured playing these games are the same as playing in spring training...

lets not be selfish and be proud instead....the rest of the world has made a great contribution to baeball in the U.S. I think it's time for the rest of the world to get a little of what we put in...

at least be happy for me...

with all due respect...

Osa

I've loved this idea since it's conception, I just wish they'd have done it at a point in time where the players would finish the WBC at least a month before spring training started.

It's been great so far. Nobody has gotten seriously hurt. A no hitter already?!? THAT is an accomplishment. A seven inning no hitter on 65 pitches, the last pitch getting a DP grounder to end the game with the mercy rule in effect. Many, many, many things have to go your way to win like that.

Derrek Lee is looking like he's in real good form already. For somebody who used to be famous for slow starts, this might be something that'll be really good for him.

Osa, I'm not against the WBC. I just think they should have had right after the World Series while players were still in baseball shape. I am happy for you getting to enjoy some great baseball. Enjoy...

Same here, it is gut renching seeing Carlos Zambrano throwing 98 MPH in March. :ph43r:

Zambrano is the only pticher we can count on. If anything happens to him, we will be more screwed then weare already.

The Chico

I agree the WBC has been a good thing. I also agree with Joe in that I'd prefer to see it when players are in optimum baseball shape. Unfortunately, there is NO good time to hold the tournament because of the length of the season. Perhaps later in ST and having the games played on a daily basis would be a better alternative.

i can see your point very well but....

we used to have great baseball here....all the big leaguers would come and play during the winters and the stadiums would get packed....then...

some of players were forbidden to play locally because of the same stuff...they could get injured, the would get too tired, etc...roberto clemente used to play year round, so did cepeda, mike cuellar, elrod hendricks, manny sanguillen, tony perez and many others...

they dont come anymore, even if we build them...

so, something like this is getting back what we once took for granted... :(

Of course if the Cubs go on to win the World Series this year than I will vote we have the WBC every year! :P

and we beat dominicana tonight 7 to 1 :lol:

Hiram Bithorn was rocking. Wish I could have been there. Seeing the Cubs play there were aming the most fun games I've ever been to.

SCARY moment during that USA game, for us Cub fans anyway. After Derrek went down, I just knew that the one person to get injured during all of this was going to be a Cub. Luckily, he got up and finished the game.

That Japanese team was tough. Even though they all looked eight years old.

Congrats, Osa. That was quite an accomplishment for the PR.

i am so excited......yeah bithorn was rockin but i was home......unfortunately i cant see anything in a full stadium so i stayed home and watched it on tv...could not believe i had pujols for a nightmare here too....quite familiar feeling with him at the plate...its venezuela tonight....long day ahead :blink:

America could use a few good defectors

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
By Tim Sullivan

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

And, while you're at it, give us somebody who can hit a snail with a slider or get a bunt down in a big game.

I'm talking to you, Team Cuba. If the World Baseball Classic is working out to your propaganda purposes, so be it. Our interest here is in better American baseball. Right now, we stink.

Team USA's second-round elimination from the WBC was both embarrassing and enlightening. It showed how far the rest of the world has advanced and how surely we're slipping.

You can blame it on the calendar, the abbreviated preparations or the absence of some elite pitchers. But the fact of the matter is the most consistent performer for Team USA in this tournament was Bob Davidson. An umpire.

This has to stop – if not through forced labor, then free agency. Though even Yankee ingenuity has its limits, the American dollar still dominates. If you can't beat 'em, why not fix some of your defects with defectors?

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that. We're a nation of immigrants, after all; the land of opportunity; the great melting pot for the world's wretched refuse and imported brilliance. It was a German patent clerk and an Italian physicist, Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, who did the early spadework in the race for the atomic bomb. When America later lagged the Soviets in space, we pulled past them with the aid of another German genius, Wernher Von Braun.

More recently, we seized the chance to mount the Olympic medals stand in ice dancing by granting fast-track citizenship to captivating Canadian Tanith Belbin. When our national interests and/or ego are at stake, we are a people who can get things done.

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Americans may not always know how to solve a sticky problem, but we've had considerable success at outsourcing through the quality of our currency. There's a reason Cubans continue to flee their island on rickety rafts, and it's not to make the scene on Miami's South Beach.

Money talks. Freedom beckons. Ballplayers who live a life of privileged privation in Cuba would think themselves sultans in the states. At the risk of lapsing into politics, it would take a mighty committed Communist to view the “MTV Cribs” video of Atlanta outfielder Andruw Jones' home, and resist the urge to seek asylum.

There are families to consider, of course, and the sharp sting of being branded a “traitor” by Cuban President Fidel Castro. There is the hypocrisy of an American foreign policy that prohibits tournament proceeds being taken back to Cuba but allows for coerced charity. There are plenty of points worth pondering, but it basically comes down to this: You can be a revolutionary or you can be rich.

“They can play at the big-league level any time,” Dominican slugger David Ortiz said of the Cuban team yesterday at Petco Park. “It takes them a minute to be a major league baseball player, but by the time they come from Cuba, they're already 30 or 35 years old. That might be a reason why they don't play longer.

“But the way they play the game is unbelievable. The second baseman, (Yulieski) Gourriel, is an outstanding player, a very outstanding player. They just won't let him come out of the room at any time. You know why.”

Earlier, Cuban manager Higinio Velez disputed the notion his players were being cloistered to deter potential defections, and he did so with grand gestures at filibuster length.

An excerpt, via translation:

“If someone says that we have them under control because they might want to leave, they might want to run away, it's not true,” Velez said. “You know very well that if you want to run away, if you want to go to another place, you can do that whenever you want. You can just leave the stadium, grab a cab, leave the hotel and that's it. You can approach a policeman or a security guard and that's it and say 'I am seeking refuge or asylum' or whatever they want to say.

“They don't want to do that. They want to play. Don't you think that they want to go back to Cuba and feel the way they are going to feel when they go back home after what they've done here?”

Adulation has its advantages, but it doesn't take you too far on the materialism front. Though Cuban outfielder Osmany Urrutia vowed earlier this month that his teammates “will never betray our 'comandante,' ” that pledge is hardly binding. Besides, who alerts the guards before a prison break?

During the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games, 39 Cuban athletes and trainers defected. Later, Cuban pitchers Orlando and Livan Hernandez and Jose Contreras all found comfort in American capitalism.

If he should ever escape his room, Yulieski Gourriel might also discover a strong incentive to stay. If you have what we lack, America will make you welcome. And wealthy.

USA lineup needs more beauty, less brawn

The Denver Post
By Troy E. Renck

Tucson - About the time Barry Bonds was deflecting questions about another scathing book, Korea was exposing the real truth about American baseball.

The game in the United States, like Bonds, has become too bloated, too slow, too dependent on the three-run home run. While the United States tried to play heavy metal with a lineup loaded with sluggers, the Koreans put on a recital.

Every nuance of the game - the type that inspires books - was on display. Hitting cutoff men, ballet double plays, sacrifice bunts, selfless at-bats. The Koreans provided a sobering reminder of what American baseball used to be.

"That's not old-school baseball, that's just the way the game is supposed to be played," Rockies infielder instructor Mike Gallego said. "Too many teams today wait for home runs that never come. You have to be able to do the little things."

The United States did little right, especially offensively. Think back to the elimination loss to Mexico. In one of the game's most critical moments, Michael Young botched a bunt and Jeff Francoeur compounded the mistake by getting picked off at second base. That is inexcusable for a team that scored 16 runs in five games and went 5-for-40 with men in scoring position against countries not named South Africa.

"It was disappointing," Team USA outfielder Matt Holliday said Saturday. "We just couldn't hit with guys on base."

Team USA's disappointing 3-3 performance in the inaugural WBC must have a strong impact on the 2009 team's roster. Officials need to blend the best team, not the best all-star team.

If the U.S. is serious about winning this event, David Eckstein and Juan Pierre should be on the roster. Heck, throw in Ryan Freel.

The team need a few grinders who can manufacture runs, not wind up with annoying strikeouts and limp at-bats.

"It just looked like the American hitters' timing was off," Mexican reliever David Cortes said.

USA manager Buck Martinez admitted as much, explaining "the players we have were used to coming through in the clutch, but they were probably not ready to do it. We just didn't hit."

Martinez suggested a five-day minicamp is necessary next time to let the American club get better acquainted. Preparation is a factor, with U.S. players in favor of reporting Feb. 1 instead of March 3. Latin and Asian teams were further along in their training, leaving the United States at the mercy of the competition's game-ready breaking-ball pitches.

Still, the bigger issue is the style of play. Korea has a few sluggers but isn't defined by the home run. That's the rub with the American-influenced big leagues. One-dimensional monsters attract the freak-show audience - guess how far the ball will go and win a prize - but erode the game.

Too many U.S. players don't run well. Too many lack range. Too often today, the country's best athletes are playing football and basketball.

The WBC's impact? That the biggest loser will be a winner, with the Americans playing baseball with more beauty than brawn in the post-steroid era.

Of juice and justice

Commissioner Bud Selig's anger toward Bonds is understandable. Selig believed the worst of the BALCO scandal was behind him when he spoke with Bonds in 2004. Now two books paint Bonds as a synthetically charged robot. Selig hasn't decided whether he will launch an official investigation.

By investigating Bonds, Selig would be investigating his own failed leadership, pulling at loose threads that could unravel for years. It's hard to believe he would threaten his own legacy by revealing Major League Baseball's culpability in this mess.

So the solution remains waiting for Bonds' knee to give out or the federal government to indict Bonds for tax evasion or perjury, giving Selig grounds for a suspension.

______________________________________________________________________

Team Cuba tests fans' loyalties
Cuban supporters back team, not Castro

The South Florida Sun-Sentinal
By Mike Berardino

SAN DIEGO · Willie Suarez was 19 when he lost his mother, aunt and little sister because of what Fidel Castro has done to Cuba.

Thirteen of them set out on a 10-foot raft, desperate for freedom. Only seven survived. That was a dozen years ago.

Suarez spent 18 months in a refugee camp at Guantanamo Bay before joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1997. Staff Sgt. Suarez has served his new country in Iraq and through a pair of tours in Afghanistan.

Five times he has applied for a visa to visit his homeland and see the grandparents and uncles that remain. All five times he has been rejected, yet a part of him will always be Cuban.

That's why you could find Suarez on a concourse 20 rows behind the Cuban dugout Saturday afternoon. Down on the field Team Cuba was putting the finishing touches on a 3-1 win over the heavily favored Dominican Republic in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic.

Up in the Petco Park stands several dozen transplanted Cubans were whooping it up.

Whistles blowing. Air horns blaring. Flags waving.

Dancing. Chanting. Singing.

"Uno mas!" they pleaded as legendary pitcher Pedro Luis Lazo faced Alfonso Soriano, the potential tying run. When Soriano struck out to end the game, the throng rejoiced.

The men in red noticed. Cuban left fielder Frederich Cepeda noted far more Dominicans live in the United States and how "it was a nice surprise to see so many people cheering for us."

As they walked to their bus afterward, Team Cuba found an even larger crowd waiting for them outside the stadium. They did not stop and sign autographs; that would be too dangerous considering the ever-present fears of defection.

But many of the players did wave to their fans. Some of them pumped a victorious fist.

"This is a revolutionary team," Cepeda said. "Baseball is not judged by the price of the athletes but by the heart of the people."

This victory didn't just vault Cuba into Monday night's championship game. It also tested loyalties, stretched explanations and offered this brainteaser.

How can a Cuban émigré root for Castro's national team?

"In politics I'm an American," Suarez said with a smile. "In baseball I'm Cuban."

As if to spell out this dichotomy, Suarez wore a Cuban flag around his shoulders, a Cuban cap on his head and a pair of tiny flags atop that cap. One was Old Glory, the other the red and gold of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Beneath his sweatshirt, Suarez wore a white T-shirt with a message in Spanish. Translated it read, "Cuba is champion. Castro is trash."

He wanted to wear it openly during the game, he said, but security people made him cover it up. The same sort of thing happened in Puerto Rico, when fans displayed "Abajo [Down With] Fidel" signs behind home plate until WBC organizers confiscated them.

After the game, Suarez would take off his sweatshirt and parade his message through the stands. But his support was fully behind the same Cuban club for which Antonio Castro, the president's son, is team doctor.

Ahhhh...Bakerball at its finest. <_<

"It was disappointing," Team USA outfielder Matt Holliday said Saturday. "We just couldn't hit with guys on base."

Ahhhh...Bakerball at its finest.

Dear Joe, Exactly. Maybe pitchers don't pitch to you the same way with runners in scoring position? :huh: That's why the teams who could do the little things properly would squeak a run or two and come up with a victory. I'd love to see the opposing team's scouting reports on most of the US sluggers. Best regards, Cle

How can a Cuban émigré root for Castro's national team?


Why is this so hard to understand?

Because he's rooting for the players on the field themselves and not for Castro or his policies?

Gee, I guess it's still possible to love the country of your birth and not like the current leader or their actions. ;)

I am glad the Cubans made it in to the finals since it's the only time we get to see this team and it's the only time they get to officially be in the U.S. Hopefully they are enjoying their stay and the support of their fans.

ee, I guess it's still possible to love the country of your birth and not like the current leader or their actions. wink.gif


I had not looked at it that way... :D

USA Today
By Michael Hiestand

ESPN drew 1.8% of cable TV households for the Japan-Cuba World Baseball Classic final Monday to finish with a 1.1% average for WBC games. That's nearly double ESPN's spring training average and above its 1.0 average for 2005 major league games.

With the exception of ESPN delaying coverage of the start of the Finals for the World Baseball Classic (the second round NIT game between Notre Dame and Michigan went into double overtime), causing the viewers to show up just over 6 mins. into the game with Japan already leading 2-0 over Cuba, last night’s game was about as good as it gets, well… short of the MLB playoffs and the World Series, but I digress.

The World Baseball Classic was in just under 3 weeks in 7 venues over 39 games.

Total attendance last night at Petco Park: 42,696

Total attendance for the WBC: Nearly 740,000

So, the WBC was a success in its first year, even with the US being eliminated before reaching the finals. Surely, Bud, Bob, Donald and Gene all have an spring in their step this morning.

There will be more talk on the scheduling of the event. Many (e.g. George Steinbrenner) saw the games in March a recipe for injury disaster. Good thing that the only key player really injured (Luis Ayala) plays for a team currently owned by MLB (the Nationals). Hard for a collective ownership to say, “I told you so.”

Whether it is better during an extended All-Star break or after the World Series seems debatable. From a marketing perspective, and the NCAA Tournament the exception, the WBC did fairly well.

Looking back, the event went smoothly… No Cuban defectors… a great game… not bad given the fact that when last night’s game kicked off 177 MLB players were sitting on sidelines watching.

See you again in 2009.