The Dominican Republic Just Got Embarrassed, Again

2009 March 10
tags: , , , ,
by CajoleJuice

One loss to the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic is understandable — it is baseball, after all — but two? I’m too lazy to find the exact numbers now, but I have a decent memory, so let’s go with $82 million versus $800k. A powerhouse of Major League players versus a bunch of career minor leaguers and kids right out of high school. And the Major Leaguers managed 3 runs in 20 innings. Pitiful. But maybe I shouldn’t be focused on how the DR choked, but on how great the Netherlands has been. They almost beat another stacked Caribbean team (Puerto Rico) just yesterday.

While watching the past few days, I naturally wondered why there were so many dark-skinned players on the Netherlands team, so I jumped up on Wikipedia to figure out how in God’s name Randall Simon was playing for them, and ended up learning that Curacao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The more you know. Who the hell has ever bothered to learn which countries all those insignificant Caribbean islands belong to, anyway? The team should really be referred to as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, though. This setup is like Puerto Ricans playing for the United States.

So all this makes me wonder how much people in the EUROPEAN country of the Netherlands care about this massive upset. My dad just informed me that a Dutchman has been in his office for a little while, and the guy doesn’t know the slightest bit about baseball. I can’t help imagining that extends to much of the country. Nonetheless, I’m sure they will be proud in dismantling such a baseball giant. Meanwhile, I’m sure the entire country of the Dominican Republic is taking this to heart. What else do they have? Maybe next time they should make sure their players are practicing over the winter. I guess I should laugh now, since I’m half Puerto Rican. Pretty sure I’m supposed to hate them. Bahaha, Dominicans! Especially the Cubs reliever (Carlos Marmol) who choked even though he wasn’t in his Cubs uniform!

I like how this is nowhere to be found on ESPN’s webpage. Do they hate the MLB network that much?

Edit: Nevermind, it’s up now.

Related posts:

  1. America Embarrasses Itself in International Sports Competition Once Again
  2. I Just Watched Playoff Baseball in March

from → Sports

  • ACook

    It was front page news on several papers over here, and will certainly be after tonights 2nd win.
    Baseball isn’t well known, even though there is a core fanbase with a long tradition. Soccer, Cycling, Speedskating, Field Hockey, Volleyball, Swimming, Basketball and then maybe Baseball.
    There is a good professional league here, and we usually beat Italy for the european championship. That’s without all the Americans in the Italy side though. Nor the islanders in the Majors and Minors. before the WBC06 didn’t even know there were any of them in the minors…

    It’s like saying Mexico usually beats USA for the north-american soccer championship. Internationally that’s a much better comparison of the class difference though than what the american media has made of it pre-tournament. Sure, in the world cup, USA or Mexico won’t win it, but you can’t just dismiss them like the DR did NL.

    • http://somewhatmanlynerd.com/blog CajoleJuice

      Cool, thanks for the personal insight.

      It’s obvious now that the Netherlands being dismissed as any sort of contender wasn’t accurate, but I imagine it’s still surprising, right? I really had no idea of the state of professional baseball in any part of Europe, so it’s great to hear that there’s enough interest within your country for a league. I’m probably just a dumb American for not assuming that there was some sort of pro ball in a decently-populated Western European country, but you just don’t hear about any of that over here at all.

      As little as I follow soccer, I understand the analogy, and it seems to fit perfectly. I still think if this tournament was held during say, the All-Star break, the Major League players on the DR would’ve played much better. Oh well, I take nothing away from the Netherlands’ accomplishment.

  • domincainheart

    I like how a puerto rican has to actually care about the classic. We are the number 1 baseball country in my eyes and if we were to grab all our best players in the league I would be surprised if we would ever loose a game plus shit happens that’s the game of baseball. And second of all why don’t puerto rico grab all their players from the league oooo wait most of them wouldn’t bother cuz their isn’t any good ones out cept pudge who is a beast with the bat and no this isn’t about disrespect to PR just stating facts