McCovey
10-03-2008, 04:29 PM
Yes, they are playing the WBC again in 2009! So who should be on Team USA?
Strong Team USA would help Classic
03/23/2008 9:00 PM ET
By Mike Bauman
Not to go all nationalistic or anything, but what might be good for World Baseball Classic II would be the team from the United States of America actually winning more games than it loses.
Is this seemingly chauvinistic sentiment in violation of the entire spirit of the event? No, it is not. As the official announcement of the 2009 version of the World Baseball Classic is made in Japan on Sunday, here are two reasons why at least a modicum of success on the part of Team USA would be all right.
The inaugural Classic in 2006 did a splendid job of demonstrating just exactly how global baseball's reach had become. If you looked at the tournament's equivalent of the Final Four, what you saw was a perfect replica of the way the game had changed, represented by the tremendous influx of talent from Latin America, and more recently, the Far East.
The four surviving squads were Japan, Korea, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. What you saw from these teams was terrific baseball, aggressive baseball, exciting baseball, precise baseball, intelligent baseball. The Asian teams were particularly adept at what we like to call "small ball" -- the subtleties of the game, moving runners, fully grasping and consistently executing the fundamentals.
Even some of those in the American media who had been the harshest critics of the Classic concept before the tournament took place were forced to admit that this event was completely worthwhile. What they were saying in essence was that Latin American and Far Eastern baseball was completely worthwhile, because the U.S. team was not actually all that impressive.
Japan won the Classic, featuring the worldwide unveiling of Daisuke Matsuzaka as the tournament's Most Valuable Player. However, the team with the Classic's best record was Korea, at 6-1, while the Japanese were 5-3. Korea's only loss came in the semifinals to Japan.
The strong showing of the Dominican team came as no surprise to anyone who had noticed how many players from that nation had become nothing less than stars in the U.S. The second-place finish of a very worthy Cuban team was a triumph of baseball over politics, after the initial reluctance of some elements of the U.S. government to allow the Cubans to participate.
For the 2009 Classic, the format has been changed, and with any luck will be less confounding to both the participants and the observers. Last time, there was round-robin play in the pools, with advancement sometimes decided by a fairly complex set of tiebreakers. The spectacle of a large group of sportswriters attempting to do the math involved was not one of the highlights of the event.
This time, the format appears simpler -- double elimination in pool play, any team losing twice is out. This should be cleaner, more generally understandable and easier overall on the worldwide baseball public.
The international flavor has been underscored for the 2009 event by the choices of sites for first-round play. Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico, will host the first round, and you do not need a master's in cultural geography to note that all of these are outside the 50 United States. However, those who still insist on referring to San Juan as an international site must be at least gently reminded that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.
In any case, everything is in place for another compelling display of baseball's global span. You have seen the impressive play of Latin American and Asian nations and you expect and happily anticipate nothing less from these teams in the second Classic.
So, what would lift the level of World Baseball Classic II? A better showing by the American team, that's what.
Team USA finished 3-3 in the first Classic. Its play, frankly, was not as fundamentally sound as that of the teams that finished above it. Its choice of pitchers, in a couple of cases, was no better than bewildering. It gave the appearance of being taken a bit by surprise by the level international baseball had reached.
In a way, the first Classic was a triumph of international baseball over American baseball. Given the fact that showcasing the global growth of the game was a major point of the whole event, at the time this may have been good for the game in general.
But the next time around, something more is going to be required from the American team if this event is to be taken to an even higher level. The U.S. will play in the Toronto first round at Rogers Centre, in a pool with Canada, Venezuela and Italy. There will be three teams with a legitimate chance to advance, and only two will, so the American team will not be able to ease its way into the tournament.
There should be no shortage of top-shelf American players who are eager to play for their country, particularly in light of what happened in the first tournament. If it is disrupting to Spring Training routines, this is a small price to pay for the honor and the privilege of representing the United States of America. In the first World Baseball Classic, the internationalization of baseball was vividly on display, with individual talent and collective effort put forth by teams from all over Planet Earth. If the second World Baseball Classic is going to take the level of global competition even higher, the team from baseball's first home is going to have to play better.
POST #1,100!
Strong Team USA would help Classic
03/23/2008 9:00 PM ET
By Mike Bauman
Not to go all nationalistic or anything, but what might be good for World Baseball Classic II would be the team from the United States of America actually winning more games than it loses.
Is this seemingly chauvinistic sentiment in violation of the entire spirit of the event? No, it is not. As the official announcement of the 2009 version of the World Baseball Classic is made in Japan on Sunday, here are two reasons why at least a modicum of success on the part of Team USA would be all right.
The inaugural Classic in 2006 did a splendid job of demonstrating just exactly how global baseball's reach had become. If you looked at the tournament's equivalent of the Final Four, what you saw was a perfect replica of the way the game had changed, represented by the tremendous influx of talent from Latin America, and more recently, the Far East.
The four surviving squads were Japan, Korea, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. What you saw from these teams was terrific baseball, aggressive baseball, exciting baseball, precise baseball, intelligent baseball. The Asian teams were particularly adept at what we like to call "small ball" -- the subtleties of the game, moving runners, fully grasping and consistently executing the fundamentals.
Even some of those in the American media who had been the harshest critics of the Classic concept before the tournament took place were forced to admit that this event was completely worthwhile. What they were saying in essence was that Latin American and Far Eastern baseball was completely worthwhile, because the U.S. team was not actually all that impressive.
Japan won the Classic, featuring the worldwide unveiling of Daisuke Matsuzaka as the tournament's Most Valuable Player. However, the team with the Classic's best record was Korea, at 6-1, while the Japanese were 5-3. Korea's only loss came in the semifinals to Japan.
The strong showing of the Dominican team came as no surprise to anyone who had noticed how many players from that nation had become nothing less than stars in the U.S. The second-place finish of a very worthy Cuban team was a triumph of baseball over politics, after the initial reluctance of some elements of the U.S. government to allow the Cubans to participate.
For the 2009 Classic, the format has been changed, and with any luck will be less confounding to both the participants and the observers. Last time, there was round-robin play in the pools, with advancement sometimes decided by a fairly complex set of tiebreakers. The spectacle of a large group of sportswriters attempting to do the math involved was not one of the highlights of the event.
This time, the format appears simpler -- double elimination in pool play, any team losing twice is out. This should be cleaner, more generally understandable and easier overall on the worldwide baseball public.
The international flavor has been underscored for the 2009 event by the choices of sites for first-round play. Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico, will host the first round, and you do not need a master's in cultural geography to note that all of these are outside the 50 United States. However, those who still insist on referring to San Juan as an international site must be at least gently reminded that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.
In any case, everything is in place for another compelling display of baseball's global span. You have seen the impressive play of Latin American and Asian nations and you expect and happily anticipate nothing less from these teams in the second Classic.
So, what would lift the level of World Baseball Classic II? A better showing by the American team, that's what.
Team USA finished 3-3 in the first Classic. Its play, frankly, was not as fundamentally sound as that of the teams that finished above it. Its choice of pitchers, in a couple of cases, was no better than bewildering. It gave the appearance of being taken a bit by surprise by the level international baseball had reached.
In a way, the first Classic was a triumph of international baseball over American baseball. Given the fact that showcasing the global growth of the game was a major point of the whole event, at the time this may have been good for the game in general.
But the next time around, something more is going to be required from the American team if this event is to be taken to an even higher level. The U.S. will play in the Toronto first round at Rogers Centre, in a pool with Canada, Venezuela and Italy. There will be three teams with a legitimate chance to advance, and only two will, so the American team will not be able to ease its way into the tournament.
There should be no shortage of top-shelf American players who are eager to play for their country, particularly in light of what happened in the first tournament. If it is disrupting to Spring Training routines, this is a small price to pay for the honor and the privilege of representing the United States of America. In the first World Baseball Classic, the internationalization of baseball was vividly on display, with individual talent and collective effort put forth by teams from all over Planet Earth. If the second World Baseball Classic is going to take the level of global competition even higher, the team from baseball's first home is going to have to play better.
POST #1,100!