Team USA defines why the World Baseball Classic is great

by Randy Booth on Mar 7, 2009 5:15 PM EST in News

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why the World Baseball Classic is so attractive.

The United States team barely edged Team Canada by a score of 6-5 today. The Red Sox's Jason Bay flied out with a full count and two outs to end the game with the game-tying run on second base. JJ Putz, who was sent in to save the game, gave up a run but was able to give the US a win.

You might hate the WBC, but this was a great game and I'm 100 percent confident we'll see more of this before the series is over.

Put aside the fact that MLB players might get hurt. That's a fact for anything. What if Dustin Pedroia walked down a sidewalk? Well, he might get hurt. We can't worry about these players. If they want to go out and play for their country, great. If they don't, that's fine, too.

I think we need to just sit back and not worry about anything. Let's just watch some really good baseball before the regular season starts. Today's game had the energy of a game in late October. Why argue against that?

Baseball is back, so let's not complain and just enjoy it.

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Comments

That was a GREAT game!

Wow – playoff-type atmosphere and tension. I’m wrung out, like after a close Sox game.

You’re right – a very entertaining game.

by ccthemovieman on Mar 7, 2009 5:35 PM EST reply actions

Re: potential injuries...

…I don’t worry about the position players. If they’ve been doing their jobs in the offseason, they don’t need to do anything (or limit anything) to get ready for the season.

I worry about the pitchers. The repetitive trauma to a pitcher’s arm is bad enough when it happens every few days over the course of six months. It’s even tougher if they’re on good teams because the playoffs can add another month to the season. But when you add another couple weeks of games at the very beginning and the pitchers throw as if the games actually matter, they’re just increasing the probability that they won’t be able to make it through the year.

That’s why I propose that for the next WBC, there needs to be a rule change mandating that only MFY pitchers be used.

by RSNexile on Mar 7, 2009 5:41 PM EST reply actions

Don't be so harsh, RSNexile

They should also be able to use pitchers from the Rays and Mets as well. (And the Cubs, too, if you’re really into sadism.)

by lone1c on Mar 7, 2009 6:56 PM EST up reply actions

Ok, I suppose we could relax the rule a little

by RSNexile on Mar 7, 2009 7:37 PM EST up reply actions

there's a 70-pitch limit for starters

Just in case you weren’t being totally sarcastic about being worried about the pitchers.

For example, Mark DiFelice is one of the emergency starter candidates for Milwaukee and should be up to throwing 59 pitches in a game by now. Guys like Yu Darvish throw more than 70 in a side session in the first place (ugh, Japan and pitch counts.) Then there’s teams like South Africa who aren’t throwing out anything resembling an MLB (or even a KBO) starting pitcher. (If Barry Armitage was trying to get a minor league contract for ‘09, he should have tried not pitching in Mexico City. It’s probably a good thing he never hit the PCL.)

by morineko on Mar 9, 2009 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions

I was pretty much on the side of "boo to the WBC but watched the DR game. I could not help myself—I was interested. I was surprised to see Ponson. I spent most of the game trying to figure out if Nederlands = Netherlands. Too lazy to look it up however.

"You know," Girardi said, shrugging his shoulders, "it didn't work."

( Joe Girardi on pitching to Manny Ramirez with first base open)

by MassGal on Mar 8, 2009 9:21 AM EDT reply actions