Team USA went on to win and stay alive. Jimmy Rollins homered, tripled and drove in four runs. Announced attendance was only 11,059.

This writer rips the team in general and Davey Johnson in particular:Team USA makes a mockery of WBC mission

Wow! What a scathing article...but true!

That's what it aspires to; it's not there yet, clearly. Johnson is in a difficult position because of the pre-season time frame and the value of the MLB stars to their teams.

Team USA scores 3 in the 9th to win, avoiding elimination by Puerto Rico. The USA joins Venezuela in the semifinals. Japan vs. Korea about to start -- the winner moves on to the semis. The loser plays Cuba for the final semifinal slot.

My husband pulls through again.

The words "hero David Wright" are curiously missing from JIP's banal summary.

I think all Mets fans became WBC fans last night. Especially sweet after a certain lionized CAPTAIN CLUTCH showed pitiful range at short and flied out in a "pressure situation."

Matt Vasgersian at the end of the telecast said he was having "a hard time picking the Player of the Game." Can you imagine if Jeter had 3 hits including the game-winner? They'd name the trophy after him.

He should try duplicating his heroism when it really counts...like September.

Japan shuts out Cuba 5-0, and qualifies for the final four. Japan will play Korea to see who meets Venezuela and USA, the #1 and #2 seeds from Pool 2.

ah, JIP still embracing the myth of clutch-hitting skill beloved by his fave hack writers...

US roster pretty weakened... Youkilis is done for the tourney, Braun might be, Wright cracked his toenail with a foul last night (no fracture).

Final 4:
Korea vs. Venezuela (Saturday)
USA vs. Japan (Sunday; did I read Peavy vs. Matsuzaka?)

Ah, Bill W, still -- no, make that eternally -- miserable.

Oswalt named to start semifinal vs Japan.

(I happily sleep the sleep of the diamond-literate.)

Japan drops USA 9-4, setting up a Japan-Korea final on Monday night.

didn't Davey Johnson know that Jeter is a lousy defensive shortstop?




http://www.dugoutcentral.com/blog/?p=2371

Japan wins 5-3 in 10 innings! (Now I'm going to bed...)

Fun 9th and 10th innings. I guess it's too bad team USA doesn't take this tournament as seriously as the rest of the world...though, frankly, if I had my way there'd be no major leaguers at this time of year. They should be getting ready for their season, which is much more important. I wouldn't mind if they shut down for a couple of weeks in mid-summer for this, if they can fit the format into 2 weeks. But they'll never give up the revenue from the lost regular-season games and there's no way they'll schedule a bunch of doubleheaders to make up for it.

Meanwhile, here's why it's not so good to just listen to the TV instead of watching. The first time I saw a game where Japan brought in Yu Darvish to pitch, I kept thinking, "How does team Japan get a player named Hugh Darvish?"

Canadian fans took this tournament seriously - for one game - the game against the USA. Japanese and Koreans took this entire tournament very seriously. This story in the Toronto Star about the passion over there in reaction to the final game.
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/607792

I wonder if there is any sport where Americans would show that kind of passion for a national team - instead of just localized passions for their local college or pro teams? In Canada nothing compares to the passion the entire nation shows for our national hockey teams - be it the Men's National team - particularly at the Olympics - (this country will be insane during Canada's hockey games at next year's Vancouver Olympics) or even on a smaller scale the Women's team at the Olympics. We even go crazy every year over our World Junior hockey team. Nothing seems to correspond in the USA.

Baseball has the "national pastime" label which is not really accurate these days. But there's never been a real world-wide baseball competition that would galvanize the nation's interest the way the Olympics does. Perhaps if baseball had a long Olympic history, and if major leaguers had been in it from the start, it might have built something up. The World Baseball Classic could be that event, but not in the time of year they play it now and not if the US players, coaches and officials don't take it seriously.

Football (American, not soccer) has enormous popularity but outside of North America there's nothing. Whatever teams may play in any kind of foreign leagues, the quality of those players would be nowhere near the quality of NFL or top-level collegiate players.

Basketball -- just look at the Olympics. The USA used to dominate, the rest of the world caught up so the USA had to call upon the Dream Team from the NBA. Then, after the initial domination, elite NBA players stopped showing up and some of their less-than-sportsmanlike behavior at times caused some disgruntlement. This is probably the closest thing to America having passion for a national team in a sport, and I don't think there's nearly the level of passion for Olympic basketball here that Japan has for baseball and Canada has for hockey.

If it weren't for the circumstances surrounding the 1980 Miracle on Ice, there'd be very little interest in USA hockey outside of diehard hockey fans.