JAG’s Sports Blog

With all the dust cleared from a baseball tournament that captured the attention from teams all over the world, Major League Baseball now takes a look at how successful this classic truly was. This question is not a very smart one depending on who you ask in the aftermath of surprising Japan’s 10-6 win over an even more surprising Cuba team. All the pieces will be pulled together in an attempt to make this tournament even better for 2009.

The first lesson to be learned from this tournament was that if American players and fans don’t care about the tournament, no other country will really notice. Baseball is spreading across the world and the fever is growing fast along with their skills as players. It will be like whether there’s a sound in the forest if a tree falls and no one is there to see and hear it fall. The popularity and importance of this tournament could be felt in Havana, Cuba where ESPN showed their fans sitting and cheering their team on. Japanese fans were also waving their flags in support of their team. Korea was supported heavily in Southern California, while we all know there’s a big Hispanic population in California also.

The national mood in Japan was lower than if the yen had dropped in half because they take their baseball seriously there and believe they can compete with Americans and they were all but dead in this tournament after losing to the United States and Korea in the second round. Japan’s only hope to advance was a surprising loss by the United States to Mexico and by all miracles, this very event happened. Japan advanced to the semi-final round where they got their revenge and defeated Korea, while the semi-pro Cuban team pulled off a shocking upset by defeating the powerful Santa Domingo team led by numerous Major League stars such as Albert Pujols, Alfonso Soriano, Adrian Beltre and others.

The tournament to Americans, players and fans alike is not that important, but to the rest of the world, it is a chance to prove themselves athletically and with their national pride. Cuban has dominated international play against amateurs, but this was their chance to prove they belonged on the world stage. Some fans in the United States of course, actually clamored for American Cubans to represent the team and the government tried to initially ban the team from the island from participating in the tournament. Puerto Rico and Venezuela came to this tournament wanting to demonstrate they could compete also. Even though Canada shocked the United States in the first round, no one expected them, Mexico, The Netherlands, Panama, Italy, Taiwan, South Africa or Australia to really have a chance to win, it’s considered a learning experience for the future.

Japan is in a time of national celebration right now because everyone in the world except the United States took this tournament as its name states, World Baseball Classic. Everyone came to win and didn’t care what kind of rules were being used. Speaking of that, with a few corrections in the rules for 2009, I think the rest of the world will respect the job being done by the umpires.

One of the first changes being discussed is using umpires from other countries and not allowing umps to handle games from their own country. Bob Davidson seemed to have an overwhelming vote that he tried to be the star of the classic and needs to be benched in the future. His bad call against Japan during the United States game almost cost them the chance to advance. He seemed to be trying to flex his muscles in the 9^th inning of the game against Cuba as he yelled into the dugout for everyone to get back in rather than worrying about the game on the field. Another change is letting the defending champions host the next tournament.

Japan proved that a team can win by pecking away as they scored 10 runs without a home run and one player even had 3 runs batted in without getting a hit. Cuba went to the long ball and Korea simply played flawless ball as they didn’t make an error the entire tournament. The world is coming on fast and if the United States doesn’t wake up, we may find ourselves once again wondering what’s going on in the world sports scene as we keep watching everyone catch up in our rear view mirrors. Satchell Paige once said “don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.” We have to stop playing internationally in every sport like we’re waiting for everyone to catch up to us.

The World Baseball Classic was a huge success and that was with or without the United States playing more than 6 games. The world got to see how other people play the game and I for one was interested in how it is played. The fans were rocking and supporting their teams. Major League Baseball put this tournament on to promote the game across the world and I think we got exactly what they were shooting for. We all assumed the home team would be in the finals at least, but you don’t always get what you ask for.

I can’t wait to see the World Baseball Classic again in 2009 in whatever city that will be hosting it.It was a nice couple of weeks to bring the world together for some fun and excitement without politics getting involved for once. It’s so nice that we can all just get along.