World Baseball Classic

[Dr Crane]

It kicks off in about an hour with Korea vs Chinese Taipei.

Is anyone else interested?

 

[Kakihara]

Judging by the huge crowd i dont think most of asia give a **** although japan will probarly get a big crowd.

From what i've heard a lot of top players declined to play (like all overpaid american sportsman do).

 

[leaguerules]

australia are playing italia at 11:00am on espn today. Italians main player i think is mike piazza

 

[leaguerules]

actually its on 12:00pm

 

[PB]

From what i've heard a lot of top players declined to play (like all overpaid american sportsman do).

Thats not completly true.

the americans have Damon, Jeter, Rodriegez, Ken Griffey Jnr, Tiexeria and Wells, not to mention Roger Clemmens & Mike Timlin pitching.

The South Amreican teams have all their guns like Ortiz, Pujols, Tejada etc..

The two negatives of the tournament are 1. Its dud timing right at the start of spring training & 2. Countries like Italy have Mike Piazza playing for them even though he has never been to Italy!

Anyway the Aussies have been absolutly smashed, they are down about 9-0 in the 6th..

 

[PB]

The Mercy Rule!!!!

Beaten 10-0 in 6.2 inning by Italy, how embaressing...

 

[Dr Crane]

Canada 8 USA 6

Purdy f**king interesting.

I thought "Orstralia" could take the Italians.

Aussie uniforms suck.

Enough said.

 

[marshall stalin]

Canada 8 USA 6

Purdy f**king interesting.

I thought "Orstralia" could take the Italians.

Aussie uniforms suck.

Enough said.

i understand all the so called italian players were US born with italian name's major league players compared to the minor league players australia had. Where's the Soviet Russian team - Hopefully the comrades from Cuba will be the champion commander- this will guarantee them dinner with comrade Generalisimo Castro too

 

[CanadianSteve]

Canada 8 USA 6. A great win for our boys, many of whom were minor league pros, while the US had a lot of big name stars. Unfortunately the stupid format has prevented Canada from moving on in the tournament despite being 2-1.

I believe some of the Italian team were native Italians. I read where US star Mike Piazza had bonded with some of the real Italians on the team.

I have no idea who the South African players were though.

 

[Dr Crane]

I have no idea who the South African players were though.

Obviously they weren't any good.

 

[Bumble]

How come the mercy rule wasn't exercised when USA beat South Africa 17-0? Or when Japan beat China 18-2?

 

[Dr Crane]

It was.

Those teams were just really crap.

 

[CanadianSteve]

It ended up as a pretty interesting tournament, with the Yanks losing, and Japan beating Cuba in the final. 2 teams with only 2 MLB players (on Japan) between them. US magazine Sports Illustrated said it makes the US re-think its style of play and training. There's a lot of buzz here that the event should be continued, but maybe at a better time of year, like in November after the World Series.