World Baseball Classic

As much as I want to hate the World Baseball Classic because it was the brain-child of Bud Selig, I can't bring myself to ignore international competition like this. I have to love it for the same reason I love watching international hockey. Different countries have different styles, and for a short couple weeks, you watch mini-All-Star teams playing for national pride.

Of course, when the powerful team USA loses to Canada in baseball, national pride turns to national mocking. The beauty of baseball (or any sport for that matter) though is that any team can beat any other team on a given day.

Yesterday afternoon we were treated to USA versus Japan, an exciting game by two very different teams. The Japanese style of baseball focuses on fundamentals, speed and manufacturing runs. American baseball on the other hand relies mostly on power and bravado.

The game was close all afternoon, and ended with a two-out, bottom of the ninth, game-winning RBI single by Alex Rodriguez. Unfortunately, the win feels a little shallow considering the run that would have put the Japense team ahead in the eigth inning on a sacrifice fly was taken away on a terrible call by the home-plate umpire. Watching that game has me itching to make a trip to Japan and catch a couple games in their league. Until then, I'll have to stick with the tournament Selig created.