World Baseball Classic proves just about nothing

Japan topped Cuba 10-6 to win the inaugural WBC Monday. It was a game that both teams clearly cared about, and at least half the crowd seemed passionate about it as well. There were admittedly some yawning white boys in the mix, but the older Japaneese couple with the rising sun flag jumping up and down in the midst of a bunch of guys with Cuban flags seemed more representative.

So Japan is the champion, and their fans are celebrating. This is all well and good. And yet some people think it means more. I'm just going to cherry pick a few choice comments so I can make myself feel good by calling other people dumb today. Here goes!
John Donovan of si.com writes:

So it follows ... the best Japanese team ever, beating the best competition the world has ever offered. Can there be any doubt? Japan is the best.

This is an absurd conclusion on so many different levels. First, the "best competition the world has ever offered" isn't the same as "the best competition there is." You couldn't reasonably make the conclusion with most teams missing many or most of their best players. More importantly, this was a tiny sample size. The US played just six games. When 162 games is often not enough to determine which team is truely the best, six certainly isn't close. Donovan goes so far as to proclaim Japan "the best" based on one lousy game, the 10-6 win over Cuba. The only thing a baseball tournament like this proves is who is the champion, not who is the best.

Hal Bodley attributes Japan and Cuba outdoing the US and Dominica to fundamentals:

If there was one lesson to be learned, it's that Japan, Cuba, Mexico and South Korea excelled at fundamentals. It was so evident these countries played the game the way it's supposed to be played.

Scott Miller at sportsline.com agrees:

It's a whole lot of little things, things once were important in blue-collar America but no longer seem so emphasized in white-collar America. Things like attention to detail and the heavy lifting kind of work that doesn't necessarily get the glory or make the headlines.

There we have it- the results of the World Baseball Classic had more to do with Marxist class struggle than anything else. Its too bad, because I really thought the US team was inoculated against charges of not caring about fundamentals by including the ultimate fundamentalist Derek Jeter (two errors in six games.) Anyway, I hope Hal and Scott enjoyed the final, where Japan (three errors) defeated Cuba (one error and eight pitchers). A purists dream come true.

Sarcasm aside, it was a very good tournament won by a deserving Japan. They haven't proven themselves the greatest baseballing nation anymore than the US hockey team proved they were better than the Russians in 1980, but like the US hockey team they won the championship and they should be proud.
posted by Scott at 12:25 PM : |

 

Canada 8, USA 6

There are a ton of problems with the World Baseball Classic, but despite Selig's best efforts to make it a failure I have to admit that I'm paying attention to this tournament. Despite it all, the sight of passionate fans waving flags and screaming their lungs out (be it a few dozen for US/Canada or a stadium full for Dominica/Venezuela) gets me going.

That said, the structure of the tournament is so terrible that a big part of me was rooting for the US to get mercy-ruled today. I was literally bouncing around my living room with gleeful anticipation when we trailed 8-0 in the fifth. That dream slipped away, as did the potential joy of A-Rod's pathetic popout ending the game when the Canadian center fielder saw it pop out of his glove, but the result still highlights some of the myriad problems with Bud's baby.

• Wrong time of year- Most of the players and especially the pitchers aren't in game shape. The tournament could be held at the end of March, mid-summer, or after the World Series, but early March is pretty much the worst possible time.
• Wrong players- Any international tournament where half the best players skip out lacks credibility. Where are Ichiro and Matsui? Why are most of the missing players happily playing Cactus and Grapefruit League games when they should be representing their countries?
• Wrong rules- Pitch count limits? Mercy rules? Painful blows to the chances of fans taking the tournament seriously.
• Wrong format- Baseball simply doesn't work in tiny sample sizes. Its not at all surprising to get results like Canada (leadoff man: Pete Orr, #2 hitter: Stubby Clapp) over the US in one game. Without longer series, results will be so random they can hardly be taken seriously.

I hope somehow these problems are fixed and a credible, viable international tournament emerges. No sporting event on the face of the earth matches the World Cup for sporting passion largely because it is shared by nations competing on relatively equal footing, but a true Baseball World Cup could come close. It would be nice to be able to care about a Star Spangled Nine without wanting them to lose to spite Bud Selig.

posted by Scott at 7:45 PM : |

 

Kirby Puckett

You've probably read that Kirby Puckett died yesterday afternoon. Everywhere I've looked on the internet, people are mourning the loss of a beloved man and a great baseball player. Thats entirely appropriate, and fine as far as it goes, and yet...

Its driving me absolutely nuts reading so many effusive comments and stories about Kirby Puckett today, virtually every one of which ignores or glosses over the rather important fact that he was a serial abuser of women. Everywhere I go- from Baseball Think Factory to Fark, commenters are bemoaning the loss of the great Kirby Puckett. Anyone who says anything to the contrary is castigated as a terrible human being for speaking such awful words.

Counting only those incidents that made the papers, he beat up his wife throughout their sixteen year marriage, beat up a mistress he kept throughout his marriage, and dragged a stranger into the men's room of a restaurant where he sexually assaulted her. I understand the desire to accentuate the positive in the immediate aftermath of a man's passing, especially an athlete that gave happy memories to so many people. I can go along with recapping the highlights of his career at the expense of a sober analysis of whether he deserved to make the Hall of Fame on merit. I can accept Twins fans reminiscing about the joy he brought them as children. I can't fathom doing all of this and ignoring the fact that he brutalized women on a regular basis. For me, and presumably for his victims, his passing is not enough of a reason to let bygones be bygones.

posted by Scott at 3:09 AM : |