Come anticipate the World Baseball Classic with me

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.

i went to korea/japan the other night and it was more fun than i've ever had at a baseball game. i really wish i could get down to san diego tomorrow.

Cuba's postseason is in March. And as G3r4rd asked in CSTB, are there Japanese winter leagues? How come they're not rusty?

Part of the US' problem was treating it like the All-Star Game, ie, pulling 'regulars' in middle innings (related to the players' teams queasiness about the whole affair, obv).

His WBC performance (0W-2L, 12.71 ERA, 2.82 WHIP, 6BBs vs. 4Ks) was the 3rd least-effective to date, trailing only Calvin Maduro of the Netherlands and Barry Armitage of South Africa.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=nationalsayala&prov=st&type=lgns

Panayotis Mitsiopoulos
President of the Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation

http://www.athens2004.com/athens2004/page/legacy?lang=en&cid=63ca470429149f00VgnVCMServer28130b0aRCRD

WHERE WAS GREECE MAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ety10zpiZY

For a team that the commentators have noted as "small ball", Japan really knocked the ball around (and out of) PetCo Park (#1 or #2 pitcher's park in MLB).

That's funny cuz this was the final I most wanted to see. I would have been okay with Korea too, but really Japan is probably the better team. I'm really excited for Monday night.

It's strange, if you'd told me before the tourney started that Japan vs Cuba would be the final, I'd have been thrilled. But now, Korea was the biggest story of the WBC, so wanted to see them try to go undefeated. And I don't think that Cuba has looked *that* impressive.

I slept thru almost all of the night game.

Did you see Lazo take off his warmup over his head, on the mound, when he entered? So cool -- like he just got up from the BarcaLounger.

NEW YORK (AP) -- South Korea pitcher Myung Hwan Park has tested positive for a banned substance and is disqualified from the World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball said in a release Friday.

Park tossed two shutout innings in one appearance with South Korea, striking out three and walking two.

South Korea is undefeated heading into its matchup with Japan in the WBC semifinals on Saturday night at Petco Park.

japan's up 4-0 in the first inning!!

Is Tony LaRussa managing Cuba?

We asked this in Brooklyn too.

Verducci in SI.com, pretty good except for the lame Bonds dig:

WBC winners and losers

Sure, Japan may have won the first World Baseball Classic, but find me a bigger winner in the tournament than Peter Moylan, a 27-year-old pharmaceutical salesman from Australia who hasn't pitched professionally in seven years -- and who promptly signed with the Braves for $30,000 after the WBC.

Moylan's story is made-for-Disney stuff. The guy signs with the Twins in 1996 but after two years in rookie ball is run out of baseball, in 1999, with an 88-mph fastball and immaturity issues. He goes home to Australia, gets a job, gets married, undergoes two back surgeries and plays for a local club team. Six months ago, while tossing a baseball in the outfield, he tries throwing sidearm and -- voil?! -- suddenly he is throwing 96 mph, a development for which he has no possible explanation.

Fast-forward to the WBC: He whiffs Magglio Ordo?ez, Bobby Abreu and Ramon Hernandez of Venezuela, and suddenly the scouts are scrambling to sign the guy. Fast-forward to October and ... well, picture a guy with glasses, a goatee, sideburns and tattoos -- his Australian manager called him "Wild Thing" after the Charlie Sheen character in Major League -- on the mound in a tight playoff game for the Braves. At this cinematic rate, why not?

"He's got real good stuff,'' said former major leaguer Pat Kelly, a coach for Australia and a scout for the Seattle Mariners. "He's a real character, but the key is if this time he really works at it and stays focused. He's got a shot if he does.''

OK, maybe Moylan isn't exactly what Bud Selig had in mind when he starting selling the WBC, but just try to find me a better story out of the tournament. While Moylan can't be topped, here are the other winners and losers to come out of what was a three-week spectacular showcase for all of baseball -- not just major league baseball.

Winners

Bartolo Colon
The Angels were rightfully concerned about their Cy Young Award winner getting game-ready in early March after leaving his last postseason start last year with shoulder trouble. But Colon looked terrific (0.64 ERA), dominating Cuba in the semifinals until he was forced out of the game by the pitch-count rule and a blister.

Koji Uehara
Japan's pitching staff faced 267 batters in the tournament and walked only 11. How good was Uehara's control in shutting out Korea for seven innings in the semifinal? The right-hander threw only 18 balls to 24 batters -- and he's not even rated as highly as his teammate ...

Daisuke Matsuzaka
The right-hander hit 95 mph with his fastball and showed he is a major league ace of the near future, perhaps as soon as next year with the Yankees. Matsuzaka, not yet a free agent, would have to go through the posting process, in which a team will have to bid likely more than $20 million just to earn the rights to negotiate a contract with him. And the early word is he is being advised by Scott Boras.

Akinori Otsuka
The former Padres reliever, now with Texas, called San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman on Sunday morning and asked if he could use his signature Hell's Bells song if he had a chance to close the championship game. Hoffman gave his blessing, and Otsuka did him proud with a five-out save.

Infield Drills
Remember the team fielding drill major league teams used to conduct before every game? Not unless you're over 30. Lazy managers and players let it lapse out of practice. But slick-fielding Asian teams did it with such elan -- they cheered for one another during it -- it deserves a comeback. Ditto the pepper games, which were performed by Cuba in its pregame warmups.

Ichiro Suzuki
He showed an iron will and true passion for his country and the tournament while suddenly revealing an outspoken side.

Canada and Mexico
The Americans' border buddies got just what they needed from the tournament: milestone upsets of the U.S. that raise the profile of baseball in their countries.

Jae Weong Seo
The Mets, with age in their rotation, look even worse for trading this young starting pitcher after the right-hander allowed only one run in 14 innings.

Chan Ho Park
With the help of a redesigned slider, Park threw 10 scoreless innings, striking out eight and saving three games. The Padres suddenly have themselves a more confident starting pitcher.

Bob Davidson
And you thought the Koreans played some sharp defense? The Americans' best defensive weapon, Davidson, took two runs off the board all by himself. Oh, wait. Right. He's an umpire.

Losers

Byung Hyun Kim
Brosius, Martinez and now Fukudome. Let's just say the man has some performance-anxiety issues.

Alfonso Soriano
He went 0-for-the-tournament, was rightfully benched in favor of Placido Polanco and made the last out of the Dominican Republic's run by -- does this sound familiar? -- flailing at a slider off the plate. And with the WBC over, he returned to the Nationals for an episode of gross insubordination, refusing to play left field when entered into the starting lineup.

Barry Bonds
Any reason he could not have taken those oh-so-important spring training at-bats in Tempe and Scottsdale as a DH in the WBC instead, for the good of his country and the sport?

Hideki Matsui
If Derek Jeter, the Yankees' captain, could sign on to ditch spring camp for a couple of weeks, so could Matsui, who may lose his status as Japan's favorite player to Suzuki. Well, at least George Steinbrenner loves Matsui for being "a true Yankee.''

United States
The U.S. players suffered from a lack of timing, being less game-ready than most of their competition. It won't happen again. The U.S. already has plans to conduct an earlier training camp, give more thought to roster construction and manage games with more play-to-win urgency, rather than using a "script" to "get people work.''

Julian Tavarez
Only insomniacs and Yankees fans appreciated his dreadful pitching in the decisive seventh inning against Cuba in the semifinal. And the Red Sox think this guy is going to be reliable pitching in the pressure of East Coast baseball?

Higinio Velez
The Cuban manager whined about the umpires after his team lost 10-6 in the final. Call it the World Baseball Classless. The umpires had nothing to do with the outcome of a game in which Velez used five pitchers to get the first 14 outs, falling behind 6-1 despite only six balls leaving the infield, or the four-run ninth-inning blowup that put the game away for Japan.

Luis Ayala
Gee, Steinbrenner was right. Somebody got hurt. Ayala blew out his elbow in a six-pitch outing in the WBC, as if that would not have happened if he were in Florida with the Nationals. Yes, Washington preferred he not pitch in the WBC, but Ayala wanted to pitch for his native Mexico. Give credit to the players' association and the owners for allowing the players to make the final call on participation. If anyone tells you, "Hey, I wanted to play, but my team wouldn't let me,'' please disregard such talk as cowardly spin.