World Baseball Classic.....

You know, this WBC got killed the last few weeks or so. Players dropping out, owners crying the blues (see inset), questions over the timing of the thing, and a general apathy for the games on the whole. Then, all of a sudden, the games started over in the Far East, and some of the critics were silenced. The games in that pool were mostly blowouts (thanks to the poor Chinese Taipei and China teams), but the Korea/Japan game was pretty good (a 3-2 Korea win, including the win by ex-Met and Big Unit thrasher Dae-Sung Koo). Now, as the bigger games start, the games are getting good. Today, the first game is Venezuela and Dominican Republic, two teams that are supposedly rather heated rivals from the days of the Caribbean World Series. Well, there were some players that pulled out, but these teams are stacked.....especially the Dominican Republic. Let's see: Soriano/Tejada/Pujols/Ortiz/Alou/Beltre.......WOW. Even the Venezuelan team is loaded, with Vizquel, Abreu, Cabrera, etc. Sounds like the All-Star game, right? Nah....these teams care about wins and losses. Fact is, as I watched it, David Ortiz just hit the mother of all hanging curveballs about 430 feet. And the place erupted......fans went crazy, waving flags, whistles, etc. The team came out of the dugout like it was on fire....all to mob Ortiz.

The "national pride" aspect of the WBC seems like it works, for now. From what I have seen, and if nobody gets hurt badly, this looks like a winner for both the players and the fans. Only thing I couldnt figure out, is why is Venezuela/Dominican Republic being played in Orlando?

PS - Theres a great article over at Yahoo Sports written by Todd Jones, reliever for the Tigers. He has been a columnist for Yahoo for a year or so now, and this a great piece about being selected for the WBC.