The World Baseball Classic -aka Got More Hits than Sadaharu Oh

With the help of my Comcast DVR Tivo-like device, I watched almost every game of the World Baseball Classic. This was a great event. Japan vs Cuba was about the perfect matchup for the championship game. Some of the drama was almost Shawshank Redemption - esque. The Japan team lost a game to the USA on a bad call, but then made it to the next round when Mexico beat USA. In the game where Mexico beat USA, there was another wrong call when a ball hit the fould pole for the Mexicans but was called a ground rule double. But the Mexico team prevailed and knocked the US team out.

When Japan got into the "final four" with Korea, Dominicana and Cuba, they drew Korea in the semis. Korea had been undefeated in the first 6 games, upsetting Japan twice and planting their flag on the mound after the 2nd victory. What happened in the 3rd meeting between the 2? Of course, Japan won convincingly 6-0. Korea beat them twice, but the 3rd time, when it really mattered as an elimination game, Japan won. Then Japan won the Final against Cuba and then it was time to throw Saduharu Oh into the air. I can't think about that guy without thinking about the Beastie Boys song with the timeless lyrics, "Got more hits than Sadaharu Oh"

With the US, Mexican, Dominican, Canadian, Venezuelan, and Puerto Rican team jam packed with Major League talent, the two teams in the finals had a total of 2 major leaguers, Ichiro and Otsuka. Korea only had a couple also. To me this just shows us that there is plenty of major league talent playing in the rest of the world. It is a little bit of a wakeup call to the Majors that maybe our World Series isn't worthy of that lofty name anymore. But it is great for baseball and baseball fans anyway. Kind of like a World Cup, except the sport is so much better.

I wrote a letter to Castro wishing his team well in the tournament, and they did well. I hope for good US relations with Cuba someday. This hope is not altogether altruistic though, I would like to vacation there some day and get some of those guys on Major League rosters, without making them ride rafts in the Atlantic to defect.

If I could get any players from this tournament on the A's roster here is who I would go for:

Matsuzaka P Japan - throws hard and is fearless out there, throwing inside at will.

Ueahara P Japan - this dude pitches like Greg Maddux except with 5-10 mph more on all the pitches. Could succeed in the Majors for sure.

Y Gourriel 2b Cuba - a 2b with massive power and speed. This guy got an inside pitch that looked like it was going to hit him in the hands and hit a bomb about 400 feet. Mad skills.