The World Baseball Classic

The Game Room
1

I searched and didn’t find a thread on this topic, which left me slightly surprised and disappointed. For many, many years I had been hoping for an international baseball competition, like the FIFA World Cup, or the Ice Hockey World Championships.

Now here it is, and while people around here are sure getting excited from what I can tell the interest isn’t nearly as high in America.

The nice thing about this, and the previous, tournament is that it shows that the playing field is a lot more level than many would have expected. Sure, the American team is pretty daunting, but other countries have very serious line-ups, and teams like Korea that don’t have any real big names have shown that they shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.

As a matter of fact, so far there have already been some serious surprises. China (where baseball is largely unknown) beats Taiwan (which has a fairly long baseball tradition). Japan crushes their arch-nemesis Korea 14-2. Just when you think their anemic offence has woken up, two days later they lose to Korea 1-0.

Australia’s batters also exploded against Mexico, in another upset: 17-7. However, Mexico then proceeded to kick Australia’s ass 16-1.

Italy, of all places, beat Canada. Venezuela (though a strong contender) managed to defeat the Americans.

The most surprising upset, however, has to be the Netherlands (!) beating the Dominican Republic not once but twice. The Dominicans are now eliminated, when on paper they should have been one the scariest teams.

At this point, I have no idea what’s going to happen in the remaining games, and that’s a good thing. Anyone has any thoughts/analysis/predictions?

2

I didn’t even know it existed, but now that we have beaten the DR twice the sportsshows are getting interested. we did lose twice to Puerto Rico though, which probably means we are playing one of the really really strong teams next; just hope the defense can stick to what they have been doing.

ps i’m dutch btw

3

By the way, how popular is baseball in the NL?

On edit: you’re playing Venezuela next, which is indeed a very strong team. However, since you guys beat the Dominicans twice, anything could happen. (Though, in all honesty, I’d put my money on Venezuela.)

4

I don’t have any figures myself, but here is a Wiki article on Dutch baseball. I used to nip up to Amsterdam every so often when I was living in Brussels and remember that on the way into the city after the Schiphol Airport station was a baseball field with a sign reading “Home of the Baseball and Softball Pirates” in Dutch, with “Pirates” spelled in the style of the Pittsburgh team.

And a quick tip of the baseball cap to Bert Blyleven, he of the wicked hook and 287 career wins, who was born in the Dutch town of Zeist as Rik Aalbert Blyleven.

5

I suspect many Americans view it in much the way they view the MLB All-Star Game: a spectacle, an exhibition, maybe interesting and fun to watch, but it doesn’t mean anything and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. And they have mixed emotions about seeing their favorite players participate, because they’re afraid something (like an injury) might happen to them that would jeopardize their ability to play “for real.”

6

One thing to remember about the Dutch team, is that a lot of their players come from Aruba and the Dutch Antillies, which has a very strong baseball love like thier Carribean neigbors.

7

I suspect that a lot of American baseball fans are, deep down, sort of against the idea of anything resembling an actual World Championship tournament for fear of what it means for our “World” Series and the “World” Champion it produces.

I think we’re fairly safe calling the Super Bowl winner the “World Champ,” as they don’t play American football anywhere else, really. But I’m always a bit curious about how each year’s World Series champions would fare against the best teams from other countries. Despite what a number of Americans still insist on believing, baseball is a truly international sport. I suspect the World Series champ would probably win - but that’s far from certain.

So, yeah, personally I really like the WBC - though I wish they’d play real baseball instead of 10-man DH Weenieball. I was thoroughly dismayed by the USA’s poor showing in '06, and I’m hoping we make a better showing this time. Not winning it all is one thing, but not even making the final round was just despicable.

8

Meh. Other than Japan, the MLB draws the top talent from across the world (you could argue for Cuba, I guess). If it wasn’t for Japan’s outdated free agency system, we’d pull more of them in as well. It’s not like teams draw their talent regionally. If the Dominican Republic had won, that doesn’t say anything bad about the talent level in the MLB - because all of those players on the DR play in the MLB.

9

I think for there to be a real danger with this, the WBC would need series. Any fool can win a baseball game, but best-of-seven is a much bigger challenge.

Add in the rosters, and I’d bet on any LCS team against any other national team.

10

I really don’t think baseball fans care about that. The term “World Series” is a trade name at this point, not a literal description or some sort of nationalist statement, and when it was coined it made more sense. All serious baseball fans realize that it’s possible, if unlikely, that the Japanese Leagues champion could beat the North American champion.

The WBC isn’t popular yet because MLB isn’t willing to give it 100% support, and there’s no pressure on teams to allow their best players to go represent their teams. I note today that Roy Halladay was pitching for the Blue Jays, despite the fact that he is pretty obviously one of the best American pitchers alive. I’m not saying his Canadian-based club held him back to prevent his being used against Canada… well, I guess you never know. But as long as Halladay’s employers and the league encourage him to skip the WBC it all seems tainted; the USA lost a game to Venezuela while using eight pitchers, none of whom are as good as Roy Halladay.

If the majors (and the various foreign leagues) were serious about this they’d suspend the season for three weeks, drop the All-Star game, and really have a bang-up tournament. It would be awesome. But they’d lose revenue, so forget it.

11

The second game between The Dutch and The Dominicans (won by The Netherlands in a thrilling 11-inning contest) was one of the best baseball games I’ve ever seen. I’m loving the WBC, and have tickets to go see one of the semifinal games with my dad and brother.

My predictions for the remainder of the tournament are that Mexico and Cuba will advance from Group One and USA and Venezuela will advance from Group Two. Then I think Venezuela will defeat Cuba for the title.

That being said, in this kind of short format anything can happen. It’s hard to believe The Netherlands could continue to catch lightning in a bottle (against Venezuela? Puerto Rico? The US?), but my favorite baseball word is youneverknow.

12

This is why I wish that, along with a WBC, they’d have something akin the Champions League where the club teams play. So you’d have the best teams from each league competeing against each other. THat’d be a more interesting competition, imo.

ALso I think we do draw the best players from Japan, all my students are obsessed with american baseball (at least the teams that have japanese players on them, particularly the Mariners and Ichigo) and the news shows highlights of the Japanese players in the MLB at night (though absolutely nothing else about the game which gets annoying.)

This isn’t entirely accurate though I agree with the overall sentiment behind it. THey play American-style football in Canada though it’s slightly different (3 downs instead of 4, I think there’s an extra player on the field, that sorta thing) and in Europe with a few rule changes. Plus it’s kinda a fledgling sport in a few other countries, like here in Japan (where the call it Amefuto, short for “american football” obviously) but it’s mostly played in colleges from what I can gather and isn’t very popular. America definitely has the most competitive American Football league (and baseball league, for that matter, imo)

13

I’m a Minnesota Twins fan, and I couldn’t care less about this tournament. I think the reason Americans don’t care is that it’s right before the regular season is about to begin. If it were held in Dec/Jan, of course it would face competition from the NFL and NCAA bowls for attention, but you’d at least know for sure which players are involved. Right now, I couldn’t tell you a single player for any team involved other than Ryan Braun, and that’s just because I live in Milwaukee.

I’m also much more interested in the Twins winning the World Series than the USA winning this WBC. If Joe Mauer were in the WBC (maybe he is?), I’d be pretty annoyed if he broke a finger for the US and missed month of the MLB season.

14

There really isn’t a good time to play the WBC. Right now in March, you’ve got the NBA and NHL getting down to playoff time, so the games start to mean more. College basketball is approaching tournament time. Plus, I’m paying attention to the PGA as we’re getting closer to the Masters with the Doral tournament this week. Not to mention spring training in MLB.

I’ll pay a bit more attention now that this WBC seems to be more interesting than the 2006 one. Too bad this can’t be played in that lull period after the Super Bowl.

15

We have a bit like that here: The Asia Series.

The problem, though, is that soccer has several leagues that are more or less of the same level. For baseball, the Majors dominate all other leagues. Japanese teams have shown in exhibition games that they can do okay against ML teams, but I doubt any other league could send a team that would pose a serious threat.

16

Ah. Memories.

Back in the 60s I remember my Dad commenting on the arrogance of North American professional sports leagues calling their winners world champions.

We are both immigrants, Dutch-Canadians.

How well I remember that wedding reception back in 1972 after all that talk that our Canadian NHL players, able to compete for their country for the first time, were going to kick Russian ass in game 1.

Well, as the news of the game under way circulated throughout the wedding, that little alcove with the TV became jam packed by 90% of the male guests who were just horror struck as the Russians kicked our ass. Our Canadian pride was deeply wounded.

There’s enough of us who are just as interested in the international tournaments as regular league play if not more as long as the professionals can play for their country.

Take the European and World Cups for football. I don’t give a hoot for soccer but when these events take place, I closely follow the Dutch who give me such ethnic pride. Canada? Meh, I’m embarrassed to admit.

So today Someone told me,who only watches baesball during the “World” Series, that the Dutch beat the Dominican Republic, laden with MLB players twice.

What? Holy Shit !

I’ll be watching the Dutch teach Hugo Chavez a lesson on Saturday :smiley:

Go Orange !

17

I watched some of the games in 2006 and this year I watched USA vs. Canada last saturday. I really enjoy it and I’m sure I’ll see more as we get closer to the finals. I especially want to see the Puerto Rico game this weekend so I can enjoy Bernie Williams one more time.

I don’t really care if the US is eliminated, I just want to see some great baseball. I’m sure I’ll check out the final no matter who makes it. It sucks that the Dominican team was eliminated…talk about a dream team.

So as not to hijack this thread, I started another to discuss a possible USA dream team. It was like trying to pick the all-star teams or the greatest team ever. Who to choose and who to leave out? Half the fun of being a baseball fan.

18

I was wondering about that, why most of the players didn’t look European (or “white”, not to mince words).

19

I’m toying with the idea of going to one of the games this Sunday, either Japan/Cuba (afternoon) or Mexico/Korea (evening). The main thing putting me off right now is the price. It’s not that i can’t afford a ticket, but they just seem to be taking the piss with the pricing, especially since just about every WBC game i’ve watched on TV so far has acres and acres of empty seats.

I guess our proximity to Mexico means that there might be plenty of people who want to watch the Mexican team play, but i just went online and tried a few different purchase options for four seats, and there were plenty of good seats available. The fact that they have lots of seats, and that getting four seats in a row is still easy, suggests that the game will be far from a sellout.

Right Field Upper Box tickets are $40 each (plus the ubiquitous $6 per ticket fee). I’ve got to decide if the spectacle will be worth the money, or whether it would be better to simply wait a month and pay $19 for the same seats, and watch Tim Lincecum pitch against Jake Peavy.

20

I’m American and I’m rooting for the USA but what was the whole deal with the pitcher hitting the Dutch player on the butt after the Dutch homerun? One announcer was adamant about how it was the right thing to do because apparently a player watching a long home run fly away is an egregious crime in the sport of baseball. Later, the pitcher said I was “trying to send a message.” And what might that message be: I have the mentality of an eight year old?

Yes, he threw at the guy’s backside and wasn’t trying to brain him but I just can’t understand the irritation and even David Wright running up the steps of the dugout because the Dutch player wasn’t running after the home run. It seemed that the Dutch player was probably stunned and awed and couldn’t believe he actually hit a home run instead of showing anybody up.