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Just watched the World Baseball Classic finals on TV. Japan won for the second time in a row, yay! They beat the US in the semis last night, and tonight they had a 10-inning game vs South Korea. If you missed it and didn't TiVo, you can check out the play-by-play on ESPN.
Japanese baseball is so strategic and team-oriented. For more on that, read my post on the Giants vs Tigers. Image by AP
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In 2008, Chronicle published my book: Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.
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While it's true that Japan won the WBC twice in a row, it's not an annual event. They won in 2006 and 2009. Daisuke Matsuzaka was MVP in both tournaments.
The next World Baseball Classic will be in 2013, and thereafter to be held every 4 years, like the World Cup. I'm glad people are getting behind this, because I always hated that our World Series was such a misnomer. This is the real deal.
Posted by: Dach | March 24, 2009 at 11:32 AM
I don't really understand why Americans aren't more embarrassed about this. (I say that as one.) We always say "oh, but we don't really take it seriously, so it's no big deal that we lost." Well, duh! We should be embarrassed about the fact that we don't take it seriously!
This is supposed to be our game. What are we afraid of that we almost set ourselves up for failure when competing against other countries?
We didn't win in the Olympics either, if I remember right, even when we did pause the season so all the best players could play. I think it's time we admit that the MLB is just not the world's premiere league anymore in terms of the quality of play. Our game is too individualistic these days, and lacking in the fundamentals.
Posted by: Jeff | March 25, 2009 at 11:32 AM