Results tagged ‘ World Baseball Classic ’
WBC Final – Japan retain their title
The World Baseball Classic final more than lived up to the high expectations placed on it. Japan and Korea put on an excellent show, displaying some exceptional fielding in a closely contested encounter. There really wasn’t much between the two sides and it was a classic case where neither side really deserved to lose.
Baseball fans were the winner, that’s for sure!
My review of the final, and why it showed how special the WBC is, can be found on BaseballGB.co.uk.
What I didn’t mention in the review was that my enjoyment of the game was reduced a little by knowing the outcome before I sat down to watch it.
As first pitch was set for around 1:30 in the early hours of the morning UK time, I decided to get some sleep rather than catch it live and to watch the game back via the archive function on MLB.com (having booked the day off work – and, yes, I do plan my annual leave around the baseball season! April 6 and 7 are already booked so that I can enjoy the opening to the MLB regular season, with more than a little help from MLB.tv.).
E-mails, RSS feeds and Twitter accounts were all out of bounds when I woke up and I had carefully set up a bookmark to the ‘media center’ page on MLB.com so that I could click on the game without seeing any baseball news. Everything was set.
Everything apart from the ‘News and Alerts’ box inside the (soon to be ‘old’) media player. I’ve been watching games live recently and rarely pay much attention to the news box, so it completely slipped my mind that I should have clicked the cross to turn it off.
Sure enough, after entering my log-in details, the first thing I saw was something along the lines of ”Ichiro lifts the WBC trophy”. I quickly looked away, but it was too late by then.
Damn!
I didn’t know exactly how the game had panned out so I was still able to enjoy it, but Korea’s ninth inning comeback would have been even more exciting had I not already known that it was going to happen.
Oh well, it’s a lesson learned. I’ll definitely be checking for any ’news’ boxes on the new media player when the final version goes live. Us Brits tend to watch quite a few archive games once the season has started (the live games not always being at the most convenient time for us) and making sure you don’t find out the score beforehand can require military-style planning. Setting up preferences on the new media player will be one job that I won’t be forgetting now.
A Classic in the making
Tonight’s WBC final between Japan and Korea has all the ingredients to be something special.
It’s a clash between the two Asian baseball superpowers; the reigning WBC champion against the reigning Olympic champion. They are evenly matched, despite Japan’s 14-2 ‘mercy’ victory in round one, and they both know that they can beat the other.
The only downside is that we’ve already seen four games between these two nations in the tournament. That’s something to be rectified for the 2013 event, but for now we can overlook it.
This isn’t simply game five, it’s the only game that matters.
A preview of the game can be found at Baseballgb.co.uk.
Korea through to the final
I wrote about big decisions yesterday. Venezuela made one by starting Carlos Silva in their semi-final against Korea and it backfired badly. A five-run first inning catapulted the Koreans to a 10-2 victory and a Monday night contest against either the US or Japan.
Silva’s final line was 1.1 innings pitched with six hits (two of which were round-trippers) and seven runs conceded. Along with the rest of the pitching staff, he wasn’t helped much by some dreadful defense that resulted in five errors: a WBC record not to be proud of.
Even so, it would be unfair to focus too much on Venezuela’s failings at the expense of a winning performance by Korea.
The Olympic champions are on course to secure a famous double triumph that will cement their place as the leading international team. Others might try and stake a claim to that title, not least Cuba, but overall talent and previous achievements should only count for so much. Baseball, like all sports, is a results-orientated competition. If Korea can make it two major international tournament victories in a row, you would have to say that they will be the team to beat heading into the next one: the Baseball World Cup in September.
Judging by the MLB.com Recap and various accounts of the game, what seemed a mouth-watering tie in prospect turned out to be a one-sided affair.
It’s up to Japan and the US to make amends tonight and I’m sure they will. The combination of two excellent teams fighting for a spot in the final should make for a cracking game.
Whoever you are supporting, I hope you enjoy the game.
Big decisions
As the World Baseball Classic reaches a climax, the managers of the four remaining teams have some big decisions to make. Most of them relate to picking which pitcher should take the mound for the semi-final.
The US have decided to start the Astros’ Roy Oswalt in the semi-final against Japan instead of Jake Peavy. Barry Bloom’s piece on the WBC website brings up the Padres’ ill-fated decision to hold Peavy back in the 2006 NLDS for a game five that never arrived, but this is a very different situation.
In that case, the then-Padres manager Bruce Bochy’s other option was Woody Williams. The US manager Davey Johnson has Oswalt to turn to. While Williams had a solid career, there’s a world of difference there. Add in the fact that Peavy has been hit all over the park in his previous two WBC starts and the decision looks entirely sensible.
Bloom also notes that Japan’s manager Tatsunori Hara waited until the US had made their plans clear before confirming the news that Daisuke Matsuzaka will start the semi-final.
Oswalt versus Dice-K? Sounds like a must-see contest. It’s a shame it begins at one in the morning UK time. A late night could be on the cards!
Japan would choose from Yu Darvish or Hisashi Iwakuma for the final if they make it through. However the bigger issue could be the player who has just gone back to Japan. Murata is their one true big-bopper and losing him is a big blow. Not that the US will be crying about it. They’ve had more than enough bad luck of their own when it comes to injuries.
As for the other semi-final, Venezuela have opted for Carlos Silva over his Mariners team mate Felix Hernandez. It could be a risky move. Not many would choose Silva over King Felix in a must-win game, but he has pitched well in the Classic so far after a disastrous 2008 MLB season.
Korea will go with the impressive right-hander Suk-Min Yoon. He faces a very tough batting lineup, but don’t count the Koreans out.
Four teams left and you can’t choose between them. The semi-finals should live up to the ‘classic’ billing.
U.S. have the Wright to celebrate
There’s a school of thought that the World Baseball Classic isn’t really for America, it’s for the other countries.
Ask your average baseball fan from Cuba, Japan or the Dominican Republic how highly they would rate WBC success and their reaction would be overwhelming compared to that of many fans in the States.
So it was great to see the US team win a thrilling game against Puerto Rico yesterday (or the early of hours of this morning for me). Even somebody who thinks that the WBC is a bad idea, something I would argue against strongly, must have been caught up in the moment as the US team rallied to a come-from-behind, walk-off 6-5 victory.
The “USA, USA” chants were rolling around Dolphin Stadium and no doubt many Americans were up off their feet joining in from the comfort of their own homes.
While it ruined my semi-final predictions, I was pleased that the US battled to such a dramatic win. A good run by the Americans will hopefully produce a bit more good will to the tournament and it also made for some brilliant, if a little surreal, scenes at the end of the game.
As they put it on the main page here at MLB.com, the victory resulted in “Phils hugging Mets, Mets hugging Yanks, Yanks hugging Red Sox”. I dare say that died-in-the-wool fans of those teams won’t be overjoyed at seeing the likes of Derek Jeter and Kevin Youkilis embracing or David Wright and Shane Victorino jumping around together.
But just for a couple of weeks every four years, it makes for a wonderful sight as rivals come together to give their all for their country.
The WBC is not perfect (I’m no great fan of the new ‘double elimination’ rule for a start); however, it is a unique event capable of producing play-off style moments during March.
And that’s a good thing in my book.
European baseball on the up
The Netherlands’ World Baseball Classic may have come to an end at the hands of the US yesterday, but once the initial disappointment wears off they will be rightly proud of their efforts.
Qualifying for the second round was a major achievement and to do so by beating the Dominican Republic twice is testament to how well they played.
2009 is set to be a big year for European baseball as the World Cup heads to our shores in September. Originally scheduled to be held in Cuba, the tournament was moved largely as a way to showcase the sport ahead of the International Olympic Committee’s meeting in Denmark the following month.
Whether it will lead to the sport returning to the Olympics in 2016 is open to question. Sadly I’m not optimistic that the IOC has any real intention of seeing baseball back in the Summer Games. However, if some of the potential voters do have an open mind, a successful World Cup certainly cannot hurt our chances.
The tournament will be a truly European event, staged over seven countries. The Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Spain and Sweden will each host a first round pool, before the Netherlands and Italy take over for the second round. Italy will then host the semi-final and final.
Confidence will be high in both the Dutch and the Italian camps after their WBC exploits and their performances should also show the rest of the European teams that they can compete against the best in the world.
BaseballGB’s series of Q&A’s with members from the Great Britain team show that we are heading into the tournament determined to put on a good showing, particularly after our silver medal finish in the 2007 European Baseball Championships.
September should be a real treat, especially when set alongside the twists and turns of the pennant races in MLB.
And the five and a half months leading up to it should be full of great baseball as well.
A great way to end the weekend
While the time stamp on this blog post will deny it, it’s Sunday evening here in Britain as I write.
The weekend is nearly over and another week at work is set to begin fairly soon, but there are still a few hours left to enjoy before heading off to sleep and what better way to spend them than by watching a ballgame.
And what a ballgame it looks set to be!
Cuba and Japan are two passionate baseball countries and their national teams are full of talented ballplayers.
The top half of the first inning has already seen Cuban pitcher Aroldis Chapman hit 101MPH on the speed gun and third baseman Michel Enriquez make a brilliant bare-handed fielding play.
I have a feeling this is going to be a close low-scoring game, which probably means that a rare run-fest at PETCO is on the cards.
Whichever way it plays out, I’m sure it will be exciting and it will look great on the impressive new Flash-based MLB.tv media player. Top work MLB.com!
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