I love using ESPN banners.

Korea vs. Japan = Yankees vs. Red Sox. I would say Mets vs. Phillies, but they can’t manage to make the playoffs at the same time. Not that either MLB rivalry is comparable, considering those involve a few states, not entire  nations. (Red Sox Nation doesn’t count, cockbags.)

But really, the World Baseball Classic final between Korea and Japan was probably the most intense, well-played, emotional baseball game I will see for six months. Amazing defense was on display. Perfect bunts were executed. Helmets exploded. Thundersticks were utilized excessively by a sellout crowd. Guys ran into walls. Opportunities were blown. Leads were choked away. A legend came through in the clutch. It was everything a baseball game should be, with the added drama of two nations who have hated each other for longer than they have played baseball. This game alone has made me pine for a time when the WBC is actually an international tournament on the scale of the World Cup. A time when the United States manages to finally take it seriously. A time when every round consists of at least a best-of-3 series, and the MLB season actually takes a backseat to the WBC every four years. Maybe Bud Selig has accomplished something here.

Case in point: I was glued to my seat at 1 AM in the morning watching Ichiro manufacture an insane at-bat to win the game for Japan. The dude fouled off a pitch that bounced in the dirt and one that was almost at his head. When he finally got a pitch down the middle, he slapped it right back from whence it came. It was fucking awesome. Sure, first base was open and the South Korean manager probably should have walked him, but I think some sort of Asian pride came into play there. Maybe I’m just a ignorant asshole, but that’s what I thought — and I liked it. It made the entire tournament come down to a moment straight out of a script I could have written as a 10-year-old. As a result, Ichiro’s legend only continues to grow. Most Americans love him, so I really can’t imagine how much of a national hero he is in Japan at this point.

So while it was great to see David Wright pull his own mini-Ichiro a few games back, I would have definitely preferred to see it happen in the FINAL. We better send the best talent we have available in four years. I don’t want to see the 2013 equivalent of C.C. Sabathia staying back in southern Florida. Not that he would’ve made a difference, since he sucks in the beginning of the year anyway. I am just jealous seeing Japan once again take this tournament. And Korea finish ahead of us again.

Ok, I’m going to take a step back here. This is never going to be the World Cup, at least not in the foreseeable future. There are only four legitimately great international teams: USA, Cuba, Korea, and Japan. I was about to include the Dominican Republic, and then I remembered they lost to the Netherlands twice. So yeah, not a very big lineup to create a truly worldwide tournament. Oh well. I enjoyed this iteration of the WBC way more than I thought possible, and for that I am grateful. Now the MLB season needs to start tomorrow. I am not joking. MAKE IT HAPPEN.

The simple truth is that every single other country takes this much more seriously than the U.S. and that’s just pathetic. If you’re going to participate, try your best to win. I’m not saying to send players out there if they’re hurt, but Jeter at SS plus Adam Dunn in RF does not equal a good defense. And leaving pitchers in so they can reach their pitch count only emphasizes how much of a joke this tournament is in the eyes of the U.S. team. As a result of bullshit like this, Japan is once again going to win this tournament, like I predicted a few posts ago. This is like when the USA basketball team was consistently losing to other countries in international competition. The other teams’ fundamentals were better, and they were more much emotionally invested.

I don’t want to hear the injury arguments. I really fucking don’t. Guys get hurt in spring training just like they do in the WBC. It’s just a lot easier to get angry at a glorified exhibition tournament than at a untelevised spring training game. If they’re not ready for “full-intensity” games yet, why don’t they get to spring training earlier? These guys are only getting paid millions of dollars to play a game for a living. I think they could manage showing up a couple of weeks earlier than the other players to prepare to kick the shit out of other countries. I understand it’s baseball and that one game isn’t a reasonable indicator, but that last inning was fucking disgusting.

/TommyLasorda

…I still think the Fangraphs idea is the best way to do this crap.

I’m going to be honest here, I had “Los Mets > U.S.A.” written as the title of this blog post in the 8th inning. Every fellow American reading this can thank me for jinxing Puerto Rico. No really, wasn’t that comeback fucking awesome? I thought there was no way I’d be this invested in the outcome of the World Baseball Classic, but when David Wright was up it was like I was watching a Mets game. Tightened stomach, tapping foot, typing between every pitch online. When his blooper dropped in, it felt like I was in the midst of the real baseball season. I just hope he can come through like that in the final week of the season this year.

As for Puerto Rico, watching the two Carloses — Delgado and Beltran — play well made me a bit torn (not to mention that I am half PR), and Beltran’s catch in particular made me sad, since I won’t be able to watch him do that at Citi Field due to the high outfield walls. It looked like their duo would be the biggest part of PR’s win until Wright finished the job steroid-abuser J.C. Romero started. Both of the pitchers PR went to in the 9th inning couldn’t find the strike zone, which is never good when you have a 2-run lead — one run of which was handed to PR when Derek Jeter displayed his totally eroded fielding ability. Putting him at shortstop while Jimmy Rollins was relegated to DH almost cost Team USA the game. Maybe they can learn from and build on this and actually make a run at winning the tourney. My money’s still on Japan, even if they are currently losing 3-0 to Korea. That country just cares way too much. If Korea wins, they’ll be forced to kill themselves.

I wish I listened to WFAN at work, just so I could listen to Mike Francesa flip a shit over every caller who wants to talk about this incredibly exciting game. And there will be a lot of them. Because New Yorkers only talk about college basketball because there’s usually nothing else to talk about.

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.