Friday, March 20, 2009
You guys. You guys. YOU GUYS. This is a big one. World Baseball Classic semifinal! The winner goes on to the final! The loser has to live with crushing shame for the next four years!! THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND! Titans clashing, baseball cultures warring, etc.
USA/JAPAN! Sunday March 22, 8pm, ESPN! Plan your evening accordingly.
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--David Wright, heroically injured in the toe
--how dare you take a walk with a man in scoring position, how DARE you
--Ryan Garko Fed-Ex'd his own 1B glove to Mark DeRosa because DeRosa did not have one
--Brian Roberts =/= Dave Roberts, Joel Hanrahan =/= Jim Hanrahan, no matter what Jon Miller may tell us
--Munenori Kawasaki turned himself into a left-handed hitter because he was an Ichiro fanboy
--JOHN GRABOW
--Panama Hat Man was shown chatting with Tommy Lasorda and Sadaharu Oh, too amazing to be truth, and yet it is truth
--Rule 34
--Derek Jeter is the ultimate Fail for America
Many thanks to Tony, Snuppy the Hound, ivantopumpyouup, and 2632 for excoriating the everliving hell out of Derek Jeter here with me tonight.Labels: Japan, liveblog, USA, World Baseball Classic
10:48 PM
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
ELIMINATION! Japan vs. Cuba, winner plays tomorrow for seeding, loser goes home. Two teams that care VERY DEEPLY about this tournament, and will be GREATLY HUMILIATED if they lose. Someone is going to feel very, very bad at the end of this one! YOU ARE EXCITED TO WATCH IT!!
The Battle for Orestes Destrade's Heart!
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--when it is foggy, turn off the freakin' greenscreen ads, just turn them off, they will not work properly
--Orestes Destrade knows all the languages
--Ariel Pestano is SO ANGRY
--Yulieski Gonzalez and Ariel Pestano= hatelove
--Hisashi Iwakuma is groundball pitching magic
--Hisashi Iwakuma= Bambi
--don't use illegal drugs, or Dave Winfield will bust you
--Ismel Jimenez has a hypnotic ass
Many thanks to Tony, ivantopumpyouup, and Snuppy the Hound for suffering through the fog and ESPN2's determination to give their sponsors what they paid for, even though it was screwing up the entire broadcast!Labels: Cuba, Japan, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
2:07 PM
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Pool A rematch! Korea/Japan, the return of The Rivalry. This will be an 11pm start, to keep us suffering on the opposite end of the gametime spectrum, and it will be on MLBN. Alas.
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--giant Korean drum, awesome but not available in the WBC store, like all good things
--other Things We Badly Want That the WBC Store Does Not Carry Because They Do Not Actually Want Our Money: four-color WBC pens, WBC logo baseball gloves, those sweet matte team Japan batting helmets, stuffed toy versions of Snuppy the cloned Korean Afghan hound
--Yong-Kyu Lee= Korean Ozzie Guillen
--Yu Darvish will never play in MLB, unless he goes back on his Solemnly Sworn Word
--the 61 mph pitch thrown by Shunsuke Watanabe shall henceforth be known as the suhpee pitch, opposite of the eephus
--inexplicable plastic bag hats
Many thanks to Tony, Snuppy the Hound, ivantopumpyouup, and briefly Jennifer and stillawakward for enjoying this Battle of the Thunderstix in glorious liveblog action.
Japan has been humiliated by Korea again, how will it all end?? Tragically, somehow, I expect.Labels: Japan, Korea, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
3:55 PM
Sunday, March 15, 2009
A return to liveblogging after a brief hiatus! I know you are all terribly, terribly excited, by which I mean that I fully expect to be doing this one on my own. Expect rambling. I believe that our announcing team will consist of Gary Thorne, Steve Phillips, and Orel Hershiser.
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--Orestes!!!!
--Panama Hat Radar Gun Man!!
--Yosvani Peraza= Cuban Cecil Fielder
--Japan headed to America with humiliation in their hearts
--Orestes Destrade is a multilingual genius of words
--the first Japanese player in MLB was not Hideo Nomo, stop lying to us ESPN2
--San Diego sunlight hates baseball
--Steve Phillips has been sneaking into WBC ballplayer hotel rooms and also going with them to SeaWorld
--Ariel Pestano= Cuban Mike Sciosia
--Yulieski Gonzalez looks like Jeff Francoeur a little bit, true fact
--ORESTES!!!!
Many thanks to Snuppy the Hound and ivantopumpyouup for joining me in this exercise in baseball humiliation!Labels: Cuba, Japan, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
1:08 PM
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Just another quick note to let you know that the 6:30 pm Wednesday USA/Venezuela Pool C final will be liveblogged right over here at RotT. OUR EXCITEMENT KNOWS NO BOUNDS.Labels: blognews, World Baseball Classic
6:08 PM
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Just a quick note to say that the liveblog for the Italy/Venezuela WBC game will be over here at RotT if you want to play along. There should be at least a couple Tigers starting, so I figured that was probably the right place for it.
Will Italy get mercy rule'd? Will we see an upset on a par with the Netherlands/DR fiasco? ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC!Labels: blognews, World Baseball Classic
2:44 PM
Monday, March 09, 2009
The last Tokyo Dome game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic. On the one hand, yay: no more Sickeningly-Early-o'clock start times! On the other hand: the last game of this WBC that Orestes Destrade will broadcast.
:(
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--Hisashi Iwakuma= Japanese Mike Mussina
--Jung Keun Bong, the Korean starting pitcher, is an Ichiro fanboy and needed a moment every time Ichiro came to the plate
--rocket of arms
--Orestes Destrade makes the worst Stu Scott/boo-ya joke in the history of the world
--Yu Darvish, sexy in both the pitching sense and the literal, posed naked for a magazine sense
Many thanks to ivantopumpyouup and stillawkward, who joined me for this last and best bit of pre-breakfast baseball and frantic Google Images searches for the naked photos of Yu Darvish.
We will miss you, Tokyo Dome! ORESTES DESTRADE AND SUPER "DRY" FOREVER!!
 Labels: Japan, Korea, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
12:39 AM
Sunday, March 08, 2009
I do not promise that this will work because I will be relying on a sneaky wireless signal, but I am going to try to liveblog a game that is not in Pool A. South Africa vs. Cuba, 2 pm Sunday afternoon. There are two underwear models on the South African team and basically nobody on their roster actually plays baseball; I expect this will be fun. Or terrible! Or terribly good fun.
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--Norge Vera is the new El Duque
--Charley Steiner is a terrible play-by-play man
--South Africa's only functional play is the pick-off move
--Charley Steiner hates baseball and fun
--Team Cuba's trainer is Fidel Castro's son
--Pool B is the worst pool
--dude in the Panama hat with the enormous cigar is awesome and should have announced the game
--seriously fuck Charley Steiner, he is trying to ruin baseball
Thanks to ivantopumpyouup, Snuppy the Hound, and briefly ashmark for suffering, suffering so much.
This was the worst game.Labels: Cuba, liveblog, South Africa, World Baseball Classic
8:40 AM
Sunday morning, feel the excitement.
Ah, nothing quite like a little elimination baseball to add some zest to your hideously early Sunday morning. China and Korea face off here, and the loser will be heading back home. Red vs. Blue! Great Wall vs. Thunderstix! Team that was defeated by Japan vs. Team that was defeated by Japan! WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC!
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--DID YOU KNOW THE GREAT WALL, CHINA, FROM SPACE
--only announcers may acquire the glorious four-color WBC pen
--Suk-Min Yoon is good at pitching baseballs
--bento boxes
--Sun Lingfeng= Chinese Ichiro
--Dae Ho Lee= Korean Adam Dunn
--I want that fucking pen
Thanks again to ivantopumpyouup, who likes keeping me company and loves baseball and hates sleep.
THE CAMPAIGN TO HAVE ORESTES DESTRADE ANNOUNCE EVERY SINGLE GAME IN THE REST OF THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC BEGINS NOW!Labels: China, Korea, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
12:11 AM
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Two liveblogs in one day, what is this madness? This is Blue Cats and Red Sox! THIS IS THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC!
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--"Weglarz"
--Russell Martin loves his mother
--the 13th inning starts with men on base, the 16th inning is decided by curling, the 21st inning is the start of 'naked time'
--Canadian stereotypes
--Team USA brings all the Jews to the yard
--Jimmy Rollins and David Wright are in the delicate beginning stages of a truly beautiful relationship
--The People want more Curtis Granderson
--French insults for French Canadians
--Adam Dunn is adorably excited by the WBC and we kind of love him
Many thanks to ivantopumpyouup, Snuppy the Hound, Tom Clifton, stillawkward, ashmark, and Siani for joining me to become way too stressed out over non-regular-season baseball. AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!Labels: Canada, liveblog, USA, World Baseball Classic
8:19 AM
Friday, March 06, 2009
Three 4 am wakeups in a row, for no reason at all-- except for WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC GLORY! Am I crazy or am I.... no, I'm crazy. Here we go for the winner's bracket of the second round of Pool A play. The enormous Japan/Korea rivalry! The Tokyo Dome!
Thunderstix! SUPER "DRY"!
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--Daisuke Matsuzaka pitches like he's having sex with the game of baseball
--when they implement the mercy rule, everyone wins, except for Korean national pride
--Norichika Aoki has the best name for Tokyo Dome chants
--gyroball
--if you're fat you're a power hitter, if you're skinny but still hit homeruns you're a 'nonpower power hitter'
--baseball statistic abbreviations, for grate lulz
--grackles
Many thanks to ivantopumpyouup, famous cloned Afghan Snuppy the Hound, and Tom Clifton for contributing to this exercise in waking up early to lovingly stroke the dewy flank of international baseball. Sorry your boys lost, ivan, but, um.... yeah, no, sorry, there were no positives to that performance.Labels: Japan, Korea, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
10:29 PM
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Oh no not another one! I am just doing these for my own purposes-- if you want to follow along or join in, you are more than welcome to do so, but I'll be livebloggin' away even if it's just me. This one will go live for Chinese Taipei (Taiwan)/Korea, Friday, 4:30 am.
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--Korea invented Thunderstix
--Korea cloned a dog and named it Snuppy
--Korea is Orestes Destrade's favorite Pool A team because they have fat players
--pitcher Jung Keun Bong is an Ichiro fanboy
--Chinese Taipei is terrible at baseballLabels: Korea, liveblog, Taiwan, World Baseball Classic
10:57 PM
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Liveblog of the first game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Oh yes. I am EXACTLY that crazy.
Well, that was exciting. Regular RotT commenter ivantopumpyouup was also awake to keep me company and watch LIVE BASEBALL FROM THE TOKYO DOME. The entire liveblog (which is basically just the two of us rambling) can be viewed above at any time simply by clicking "replay" in that box up there. It is probably deadly boring, but if you're sitting at work bored out of your mind, maybe it will be less boring than that.
SUPER "DRY"!
postscript: things we learned from this game:
--China has first and last names on the backs of their jerseys
--pitcher Yu Darvish is really, really good
--CHINA= GREAT WALL
--JAPAN= MT. FUJI
--MLB 2K9 should be boycotted by everyone because of their terrifying digital Tim Lincecum ad
--Ichiro is a sexy beast even when he's not hitting
--US and Asian League baseballs are made out of different dead animals
--Orestes Destrade likes meaty ballplayers
--do not question SUPER "DRY"Labels: China, Japan, liveblog, World Baseball Classic
8:53 PM
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
I think it's fair to say that Arroyo got kind of screwed here. Now, on the bald and shiny face of it, the Tito face of it if you will, this deal makes sense. It's not like Arroyo was Wicked Vitally Instrumental to our pitching staff... let's admit it, no starter with an ERA over 4.00 and an age over 25 is going to be WVI*. We do have some pitching depth, 'though after last season I'm of the opinion that we can never have too many potential starters lined up, especially when 3 of our starters right now are old (Wake), older (Schill), and so old that they're liable to start eroding like a sand dune in a high wind at any moment (Wells). Arroyo was moveable.
And it's not unexpected. I hate to say it, but I had that goodbye image photoshopped up already... it had been sitting on my harddrive for months. And don't get on me for jinxing him, I had one made for Varitek too. I just like to be prepared. I'm a pre-emptive photoshopper, yo. Anyways, clearly the idea of trading away the cornrows had been floating around in varying stages of likelihood for quite some time now.
Wily Mo, even besides being named Wily Mo (pronounced 'Willie', but still awesome), is a worthwhile player. He doesn't grade out great according to the Sporting News Baseball Register (only a 6.3... yeesh, Carlos Pena even grades out to a 7.1), and he has trouble with pitches up in the zone. He's shown respectable power in the years he's played a respectable number of games, slugging .527 the year he played 110 games and slugging .492 last year when he played in 99. He hit .291/.345/.536 against lefties last season. Combine that with Trotter's .288/.364/.489 against righties, and you've got a .290/.355/.513 composite right fielder, which ain't bad, and is marginally less likely to injure its collective self, having two sets of knees to properly blow out.
And I guess I'd trust him at the plate against lefties more than I'd trust Dustan Mohr. So it's not a horrible trade, not in a pure, hard, baseball vacuum sense.
But (and here is where I take off my Rational Human Being Red Sox Hat and replace it with my battered, paint-smeared, Pry It Off My Cold Dead Skull Insane Fan Red Sox hat) what this trade, did, basically, and I don't like to be crude about this, but what it did was lay a big steaming egg on Bronson Arroyo. And I don't mean a nice pretty light blue speckled egg either. I mean an egg in form alone, an egg with the composition of a pre-fossilized coprolite if y'know what I mean, and I think you do.
Against the advice of everyone from his agent to his mom to the dust mites that live in his eyebrows (as they do in all of ours) Arroyo resigned with Boston for stonkerloads less than he could have made had he chosen to push the matter. Why? Because he loved the city and the Red Sox and recognized that it was somewhere he would be appreciated for his horrible hair and his loopy leg kick and where he could totally get, like, gigs in local bars, man.
He had been stuck bouncing between a big crumbly rock (the Pirates' minor league system) and a dry icky hard place (the Pirates) when Boston swooped in like Batman, rubber Clooney nipples and all, and plucked him out of the clutches of the cocaine-smuggling parrot. He had been stuck on waivers, for Pesky's sake. In Boston he was someone. I'm sure there were a lot of reasons behind Arroyo giving such a huge discount to the home team this offseason, but gratitude for the team that 'saved' him may well have been one of them.
And now this. The dude shows his faith in the team and his love of the city and he gets shipped out of town to Ohio, of all godforsaken cabbage-smelling crap-university-having places. It's just a slap in the face, is what it is, not to mix that metaphor with the odiferous egg or anything. It's cold, man. And it wasn't unexpected in a general sense, but the timing of this caught me completely by surprise. Why now?
I am bloody exhausted and had about the worst day possible today, so you'll have to pardon any spelling/grammar mistakes or out-of-place references to penguins**. This and Joey being ridden out of town are, surprisingly, the least of my concerns today, although they CERTAINLY DID NOT HELP THANK YOU SPORTS.
A nice surprise came with the WBC final today, though. I don't get out of my prison workshop until 8:30 pm, and that's in Jackson, and I have to be escorted across the yard and let out the gate (sometimes a lengthy process), and then I have to drive all the way back to Ann Arbor (up to an hour, depending on how slow I'm driving), and then I have to return the van to the art school and return the supplies and wait for the bus to take me back to my dorm (anywhere from half an hour to a full hour, depending on how many supplies I bring out and have to slot back into the closet, and how long the bus takes to show up). Long story short, I figured to get back around 10, 10:30, and so expected to miss a good-sized chunk of the game, since it started at 9.
Imagine then my surprise when I staggered into my room, turned on the TV, and saw that they were just wrapping up the first inning.
Bless you, Japan, for beating the cigars out of Cuba for that first inning, and thereby taking up enough time to allow me to watch almost the entire game. For reals, yo. Thanks.
It was a good game, too, with Japan dominating for much of it, and then Cuba staging a rousing comeback to bring it to within one run, only to see Japan pull ahead again and ultimately win, 10-6. The Japnese players hugged each other with the enthusiasm of Big Papi after the game, and they laid a flag down flat across the pitching rubber, a rather obvious but still vaguely touching snub of the nose at Korea. The enthusiasm of some of the Japanese players when a few of their teammates came running onto the field with a giant Japanese flag was something to see: one guy smacked the player nearest to him on the shoulder and they started excitedly pointing at the flag as it was being run out. Too cute.
Oh, and they did the traditional Japanese baseball manager throw too, where the championship team lifts the venerable old manager onto their shoulders and proceeds to hurl him several times into the air, usually with his arms and legs held awkwardly up and out like an upturned, but very very sincerely happy, beetle. It always reminded me of people getting lifted in chairs at Jewish weddings and Bat/Bar Mitzvahs... the kids have a ton of fun with it, but the older ladies so treated just grin nervously and grip the edges of the chair really hard, and hope like hell that Uncle Dave doesn't lose his grip. But they're really happy!
In other words, it was hilarious seeing Sadaharu Oh get moshed.
The Cuban team, after a moment, filed out of their dugout and into the midst of the Japanese celebration to shake their hands and say congrats in a language their opponents did not speak. It was a very classy move of them and the Japanese players seemed as mildly but pleasantly surprised as the announcers were. I also noticed a few of the Cuban players getting people to take photos of them with their arms around Ichiro, which is so what I would do if I was there, (seriously, be still my heart, and shut up ladies, I know what you're going to say already) so thumbs up to them for seizing the opportunity.
I still can't get over how great it was that he broke out high socks for the event, thereby combining two of my favorite things: amazing fielders who hit for average, and high socks.
One final WBC question, that may only make sense to those who insomniatically stayed up to watch some (or, er, most) of the late-night reruns of the games. The ones where 'due to time constraints, [they] now jump ahead in the action'. The guy who pops up on the screen and tells us that we're leaping forward in time: isn't he extremely creepy-looking? Is it just me? Or are other people as completely freaked the hell out by him as I am? I think his name is Ron Flores***, but isn't that a pitcher for the A's? It's possible I'm hallucinating the entire thing; after all, I am watching these games at 3 in the morning. But the dude just terrifies me. He has these creeptastic mismatched wandering eyes.
I'm not sure that's the right note to end my WBC chatter on, but perhaps it's as good as any other.
*Jeremy Bonderman, you will note, is a perfectly valid WVI pitcher under these constraints. Jus' sayin'. Blue Cats and Red Sox: we like Science, especially the kind we make up ourselves. And by 'we' I mean me and the Manny-on-a-stick that sits above my desk. No word of a lie. I used it to point at the screen during a presentation last year.
**Tends to happen when I reach a certain critical level of exhaustion. There comes a point where I'm so tired that I literally do not know where I am anymore and am actually asleep in my mind, but I'm still sitting at the computer typing. This happened once in high school while I was writing a history paper. I jerked awake after about 3 and a half pages and reread them, only to find a comprehensive study of 19th century utopianism to be filled with phrases like, "The commune lasted for another 12 years in this fashion penguin on the ice fish before finally dwindling down to nothing ice floe penguin." Three pages of that. I was terrified and confused and I only wish I was making that up.
***I just flipped on ESPN2, realizing I might catch him rebroadcasting tonight's game. It's Robert Flores and he has something to do with ESPN Radio, 'tho I rather like the idea of a relief pitcher prospect for the A's somehow getting shanghaied into saying "due to time constraints we now move forward in the action" at 3 am every night, because it's exactly the sort of deranged thing that seems to follow around the A's. Anyways, this is the only photos of him I can find on short notice, and it definitely does not showcase the full terror, so you'll either know what I'm talking about or you'll just have to trust me on this one.Labels: baseball, Bronson Arroyo, goodbye, Ichiro, Japan, MLB, Red Sox, trade, World Baseball Classic
3:45 AM
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Holy freaking cats, Korea.
I'm going to be a mess tomorrow. I have to be up and vaguely mobile in about 3 and a half hours. I have 10 and a half hours of solid classtime tomorrow (today), not counting transit, which works out to about 2 more hours for the whole day. I just stayed awake to watch Korea/Japan, even though I already knew that Korea had won.
It was completely worth it.
At this point I am quite incapable of summing the game up properly but let me say this: it was 0-0 going into the 8th inning.
Chan Ho Park started and threw 5 innings of 4-hit, scoreless ball. Byung Hyun Kim got the win and the Fabulous Mr. Koo (name probably picked up from some Mets blog or other) got the hold.
Korea scored when a runner hustled from first to third on what should have been just a single. The ball beat him there. The third baseman had the ball. The Korean runner sort of slid into the Japanese third baseman, forcing the ball out of his glove (all very aboveboard and and clean and legal, by the by... no slapping), and making himself safe. The next batter was the Korean captain, Jong Beom Lee, who proceeded to hit a two-run double.
Japan got one run back on a single-shot homer in the bottom of the 9th, but the ridiculously good Korean pitching held on for the win.
The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Korean. There were signs everywhere: "Final Four-Korea-March Madness", "30 years? We only needed 1 week!" (a reference to Ichiro's comments on Japan's dominance of Asian baseball), "Korea hit homer!" with a big drawing of Homer Simpson.
When Korea got that last out. Oh man.
They got their flag, and ran around the field with it like in the Olympics. One of their players took another Korean flag, on a pole, and dug a little hole in the center of the pitcher's mound, and planted the Korean flag in front of the rubber at Angel Stadium. He took his time, concentrating on getting it straight and standing tall, digging a little deeper when it threatened to fall over, excited and happy and intent on his task, like it was the most important thing in the world at that moment. When he got it standing to his satisfaction he stepped back to rejoin his teammates in the celebration.
Then he picked up the hem of the flag and kissed it.
Japan can still get into the next round, if the US loses to Mexico tomorrow. And I'll feel bad if they don't make it in, after what happened to them in their game against us.
But for Korea to beat Japan not once, but twice, and once in the Tokyo Dome... for any team to win the Asian bracket besides Japan... for Byung Hyun Kim to have a more positive impact on a baseball game than Ichiro Suzuki... it's huge. It's immense. It's a bigger upset than Canada beating the US, which I said at the time (Korea had already beaten Japan at home at that point).
Quoth the captain: "It made me proud to be Korean, but more important, we beat Japan," he [Jong Beom Lee] offered. "It was sweet revenge."
Oh yeah, and Korea is undefeated in WBC play.
Oh, and the Korean government has announced that, since they made it to the semifinals, those members of the Korean team who have yet to serve their mandatory military service will have that three-year requirement waived.
I don't care what George Steinbrenner or David Wells think. Bud Selig got something right with this thing. If you don't love this, you don't love baseball.Labels: baseball, Japan, Korea, World Baseball Classic
6:06 AM
Monday, March 13, 2006
Well that kinda stunk.
The US won on Sunday, barely, and it was terribly exciting and all, but the whole thing was TAINTED for several reasons:
1. A-Rod hit the final ball to win the game and thus all my excitement at the whole bases loaded thing and the whole Ken Griffey Jr. will he get a hit will he make an out will his arms break off and turn to powdered cornstarch on the ground scene leading up to it was for naught. I got all worked up and then the final run came across and YAY WE WON WHAT A GAME but wait. WAIT. Whose purpled lips are stretched wide in a rictus grin of victory? A-Rod? Nevermind. To the vomitorium I go.
2. Joe Nathan peed himself on the mound. There was wee dribbling down his legs and Japanese men giggling at the plate. It was embarassing to watch, like Johnny Damon struggling to form a coherent sentence back when we were all still trying to not be annoyed by Johnny Damon, and I wanted it to stop. The boxscore said there was only one hit and one walk against him but he looked so bad I refuse to believe it.
3. We shouldn't have won. The Japanese had the bases loaded, 1 out, and there was a relatively shallow pop fly, so the guy on third bolted for home. He came across and Buck Martinez came barrelling out of the US dugout to tell the umps that the guy had left third early, even though the second base ump had already called him safe at home. There was much discussion and eventually it was overturned and Sadaharu Oh was quietly disgusted. Replays seemed to indicate that the guy did not leave early BUT.
But. OK. Even if this was football and the umpires had the benefit of on-field instant replay, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN OVERTURNED. The original call had been made pretty much without hesitation, albeit by the wrong ump (so what was the third base ump doing at the time, picking his toe jam?), and the replay did not show a conclusive difference one way or the other. ED HOCHULI WOULD NOT OVERTURN THIS. But Ed Hochuli has good eyes and good biceps and an understanding of letting the team that actually scored the points keep those points and also he is not a minor league referee so this would not have been a problem.
So the Japanese got their run taken off the board AND two outs on the play, taking them out of the inning. For a long while they refused to take the field because they didn't think the inning should be over and THEY WERE CORRECT. Sadaharu Oh did not throw a hissy fit not because he had no case but because it would not have helped and he is a GENTLEMAN in other words quite unlike Tony LaRussa, who is a man with old school pine tar in his soul not scruples.
I would have liked to have won this in a way that was not tainted but this was bad meat. The Japanese team should have been up 4-3 with one more out in the inning but instead they were left tied at 3 with no outs at all, and they were vulnerable to the slappy ways of A-Rod in the 9th.
More notes from the game:
This is the second Chipper Jones homerun I have seen in the WBC so far. WHY IS CHIPPER JONES SO FUCKING GOOD?
Derek Jeter cups his genitals very lightly before stepping into the box. Dude, if you’re gonna grope the junk, GO FOR IT. Look at Brandon Inge. Brandon Inge knows how to tweak a cup on the field. And then Jeter grounds into a double play so MY SCORN IS UNENDING.
Michael Young got a hit. Ken Griffey Jr. got a hit. Why didn’t you, Derek? Why didn’t you? Hell, A-Rod got a hit, there are two men on now and two outs. Chipper is up but he can’t do everything by himself, Derek. I’m having way too much fun taunting him for doing something that Poor Edgar did, repeatedly, for the Sox.
Ball gets by the catcher (wild pitch) and the base runners move up. Fucksocks, Chipper grounds to first. SEE, JETER?? If only you had bussed your balls like a man, we would have scored somewhere in that inning. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MY LOGIC, READERS. It is flawless.
“In Puerto Rico you don’t become a baseball fan. You’re born a baseball fan. If you do well, they’ll let you know. Heh, if you do bad they’ll let you know too. They’re definitely gonna be loud. I’m Carlos Delgado, and I’m hella happy to be off the Marlins.” So Puerto Rican baseball fans are basically Red Sox fans, right?
Sadaharu Oh on Ichiro: “First of all, he loves the game of baseball.” So he’s NOT Zach Greinke or Keith Foulke, is that what we’re sayin’? Then again if I was Zach Greinke and was stuck on the Royals I might get sad with life too. OH WAIT EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT HE'S BARELY OLDER THAN ME AND HE'S PLAYING BASEBALL AND MAKING MORE MONEY THAN I WITH MY USELESS ART DEGREE WILL EVER MAKE. Boo fucking hoo, Mr. Greinke. Your hypothetical sob story is wasted on me.
Peavy finally settles down in the 4th. Gaslamp Ball thinks that Jake Peavy is being supplanted as the cutest Padres pitcher. Judge for yourself.
Has anyone else noticed that the underarmor-ish shirts being worn by Team USA make it look like they all have skin disease? They’re navy blue with a spattering of red dots at the elbow that look like nothing so much as a clustering of eczema. Please tell me I’m not the only one seeing this.
With one swing in the 6th Derrek Lee ties it up. WHY IS DERREK LEE SO FUCKING GOOD?
I just realized why Ichiro looked different in this game. HE’S WEARING HIS SOCKS UP. He never does that for Seattle, he wears his pants down and those stupid hightop looking cleat things, like he's a basketball player in his secret dreams instead of a gory actor. Huh.
Well, I also watched the Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico and Mexico/Korea games, but I didn't follow them as closely because I was busy making worksheets and color wheels so that tomorrow evening I can teach Michigan prisoners the basics of color theory. I will note that Pudge was absolutely adorable when he hit his double early in the game (he cruised into second base pumping his fist like Derek Jeter only not so much with the extreme lame), and I was disappointed in the Korean game because Sung Heon Hong wasn't playing. Although I note that they replaced the stocky thirdbaseman with a guy named Bum Ho Lee, which, hello, I am 5 years old.
Oh and the art show reception went AWESOMELY. It was GREAT. The turnout was way bigger than we expected and there was a BAND, and they were DRESSED UP AS ANIMAL HYBRIDS, and they WRESTLED WITH MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE, and people ACTUALLY SPENT TIME READING THE WORDS ON MY PIECE, and it was just generally ace in every way. You can see photos from it here if you wish to partake of the awesomeness.
If you're in the area and couldn't make it out for the reception you can still see the show, it is in the WORK gallery until March 24th. I recommend it, although it is too bad that you missed the band.Labels: baseball, gameblog, Japan, USA, World Baseball Classic
3:13 AM
Friday, March 10, 2006
I'd just like to point out that the US controls its own destiny today, as the saying goes, because Canada got absolutely blasted by Mexico yesterday. This means that if the US beats South Africa today, they go on to the second round; if they lose, they don't. Roger Clemens is supposed to be taking the mound, for whatever that's worth. I'd say a lot, but then again I wouldn't have expected Dontrelle Willis to lose to Canada.
I didn't see the Canada/Mexico game last night... because I was watching Italy/Dominican Republic, which the DR won 8-3. Papi was 0-2, so it was all about the Tigers in this one. Tony Giarratano was 1 for 3 with a double and scored a run with a speedy jaunt all the way around from first (the announcers were suitably impressed), former Tiger Frank Catalonotto was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, Placido Polanco going 2 for 5 and coming around to score both times (when you're hitting in front of Albert Pujols, that tends to happen), and Fernando Rodney closed out the game for the DR.
Highlights included some poor scrub on the Italian team named Saccomanno making 2 vital throwing errors, 42 year old winter league vet Luis Polonia getting cheered like he was Pujols when he came up to bat (even though he grounded out... the DR crowd loves 'em some Luis), listening to the announcers say names like "Rollandini" and "Liverziani".
Oh, and there was a Delucci in the outfield, which confused me, because I was thinking to myself, "Damn, David Dellucci got awfully heavy over the offseason." Turns out it was Dustin Delucci (one 'l'), an ageing fringe prospect bouncing around what I think is the lower end of the Padres organization.
So the US plays today at 3 pm, but I'm not going to see it until it rebroadcasts at 3 am, because it's not on TV here until then and in any event I'll be doing some scholarly crap until I head over to the WORK gallery on State St. for the show opening tonight, which everyone in the area should obviously go to. Show info here, in case you forgot.
After that I am apparently going bowling with my roommate for next year, which should be seedily interesting. So I'll probably be home just in time to see the US take on the mighty mighty bats of guys like Zaid Hendricks and Ricardo Siljeur. Nobody tell me beforehand who wins, I want to be able to watch it with full insomniatic glory.Labels: baseball, USA, World Baseball Classic
1:29 PM
Thursday, March 09, 2006
The USA got beaten by Adam Stern!
Yeah, there was some pitching involved too, but Adam Stern! It was Adam Stern who had the absurd inside-the-park homerun that had me squealing like an idiot. It was Stern who played center field all day like he was a kangaroo with rawhide magnets in his hands, diving all over the field and stealing the whoop right out of Chase Utley's run 'round the bases. Adam Stern!
Do you know how many homeruns Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Johnny Damon combined to hit in this game? Exactly zero. Do you know how many Adam Stern hit? That's right, one, and it was a doozy. And yes, I just said 'doozy'.
It's OK. So the US lost, and yes, I was mortified that we lost, not to the Dominican Republic or Japan or something, which would have been completely understandable, but instead to Canada, a Rich Harden-less Canada, even (and to be without Rich Harden is a terrible, terrible thing indeed). But in the end, I just could not make myself root for A-Rod. Jeter, I could stomach that (Beth discusses the phenomenon here), Damon only played in this one as a pinch hitter so I didn't have to see him much.
By the by, I didn't even know we had Gary Majewski on the team. Sheesh. I saw the hair on screen and flipped out. He looks like he should be wearing a small pointy goatee and familiarly teasing D'Artagnan about his shirtsleeves.
I was rooting for Team USA in the sense that I was rooting, as violently as possible, for Jason Varitek, especially when he came up to bat with the bases loaded, the US trailing 8-2 (I think). All the times he's come up in that situation and freaked came to mind... after all, he only got his first grand slam last season. "Just get on base, Tek," I muttered at the TV. Shut up. I know you all talk to the TV when the Sox are playing. "Don't go all out for it if it's not there, just get on base."
Jason Varitek, proving for the 5,000th time that he knows more about baseball than I do, proceeded to hit the base out of the ball and crushed it into the stands for 4 runs.
The announcers, proving for the 5,000th time that we all know more about baseball than they do, immediately said that all Sox fans must have been expecting that. Right. We know 'Tek has a sliver of the mystical Clutcherification that so dotingly follows Papi around, like a great big debatedly-extant puppy, but a grand slam? What Sox fans know is how much 'Tek struggles to hit grand slams. Bloody announcers.
But as I said, in the end, it wasn't too bad. Because it's not possible for me to root against Adam Stern, even though he is a former Cornhusker, and I think we all know how I feel about them right now. And it's pretty hard to root against someone named "Stubby Clapp" too. And the Twins fans I know here are already salivating copiously about Morneau's performance.
It's now 3:25 am, and I'm watching another inning or so of the Netherlands/Puerto Rico game before bed. Not because I particularly care, but because I'm up anyways, and it's Pudge and Little Alex Cora and a whole bunch of people I've never heard of in my life for the Netherlands and real honest to gosh baseball. And that's pretty damn good.Labels: Adam Stern, baseball, Canada, USA, World Baseball Classic
3:09 AM
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