Come anticipate the World Baseball Classic with me

This would kick ass, but how many countries have functionalm, successful baseball leagues?

dominican, venezuelan, puerto rican, mexican, japanese all have functional leagues, right? what about korea, italy and greece?

i mean for the lesser leagues you could maybe have play ins...i mean, to take the champs league analogy further, i don't think the bulgarian squads that make it in are expected to do really do anything but be a punching bag for the 5th place premier league club that has to play in, but hey...

Yes, the Korean squad (5-0, undefeated in the WBC) has a functional league!

JB Lee just hit a 2-RBI double and got called out at third, breaking the 0-0 tie in the top of the 8th.

7 hits + 5 walks over 8 complete innings = a combined WHIP of 0.75 so far...

vs. Taiwan: 2 - 0
vs. China: 10-1
vs. Japan: 3-2
vs. Mexico: 2-1
vs. USA: 8-3
vs. Japan: 2-1

Ha, those 1 run games are also reminscent of the ChiSox...

Larry speaks:

"The tiebreaker is bogus. I don't agree with that," [Chipper] said. "I would change that . . . Knock it down to two flights. Do like a double-elimination thing. Have the winners of the two flights play in San Diego."

In all, however, Jones has greatly enjoyed his WBC experience and would recommend it to those who opted not to participate. He most of all liked being the teammate of Roger Clemens, whom he described as "more like Jesus than I thought."

"He's got worldwide respect," Jones said of Clemens. "He's like EF Hutton. When he speaks, people listen."

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spusa164664148mar16,0,7465388.story?

This quote is even weirder.

But here's what else we know:

If USA scores, MEX is eliminated.
MEX can only advance with a 3-0 or 4-0 win in 13 or 14 innings.
If MEX scores more than two runs (before the 13th), JPN will advance unless USA wins.
If MEX scores more than three runs, JPN advances unless USA wins (or MEX wins 4-0 – see above).
If MEX scores exactly two runs – and makes fewer than two out in bottom of ninth – JPN advances unless USA wins.
If MEX scores exactly two runs – including the winning run with two out in the bottom of the ninth – USA and JPN are tied with 5 runs allowed in 17 2/3 innings. One of JPN's runs is unearned (ERA is the next tiebreaker).
So:
• If both MEX runs are earned, JPN advances.
• If both MEX runs are unearned, USA advances.
• If one MEX run is earned, then JPN and USA must break tie with batting average in games between teams. JPN is 20 for 65 (.305). USA was 12 for 36 (.333) vs. JPN.

JP
KOR

DR
CUB

Oh my god!! I mean that is just awesome. Especially given the two games already played btween KOR and JP. That humiliated arrogance on Ichiro's face.

And DR vs CUB!!! The victory cigars will be pretty sweet regardless of which clubhouse is smoking them.

Japan got another shitty call when a fan intefered with a foul ball close to the stands. The next pitch was the game wining single.

Mexico took a 1-0 lead off Clemens in the third on a leadoff double by Mario Valenzuela and a two-out single by Jorge Cantu.

But it wasn't that simple.

A television replay showed Valenzuela's fly ball hit the right field foul pole at least 10 feet off the ground and bounced back onto the field. However, first base umpire Bob Davidson didn't see it that way, and Valenzuela wound up at second.

It was Davidson, umpiring behind the plate, who ruled that Japan's Tsuyoshi Nishioka left third base early in the eighth inning Sunday to negate a sacrifice fly that would have snapped a 3-3 tie in a game Team USA eventually won 4-3.

They should alter the jersey to read "US OF A" just like Sutcliffe the Talking Dog kept saying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruK3uvGMg1U&feature=Views&page=2&t=t&f=b

wrt team usa, i'd say: i like buck martinez in the booth okay, but he wasn't such a hot mgr. would it make more sense to tilt the roster towards dudes that play in offseason leagues or try to do more international comps? clearly, there were some issues in the field.