Wow. Big HR for Japan.

 

It'll kind of be a sham though if Korea only loses one game the entire tournament, beats Japan twice, but still doesn't make the title game because they'd have to beat Japan three times (which would be hard for any team to do) in order to make the championship. If I were the Koreans I'd be kind of pissed about it, though I guess you can't complain THAT much, since they will have lost and all.

 

IMO, these semifinal matchups should have been Pool A winner-Pool B runnerup and Pool B winner-Pool A runner up. But whatever, that's one of the many things they can tweak next time to make this tournament even better.

 

Now a hard hit ground rule double. Kim choking a huge game away again.

Fidel Castro Cheers on Cuba’s Baseball Team

 

SAN DIEGO. - President Fidel Castro has congratulated the Cuban baseball team for their efforts so far in the 1st World Baseball Classic (WBC), said manager Higinio Velez in a press conference on Friday.

 

The Olympic champions faced teams stacked with US Major League players in Rounds 1 and 2 of the WBC, while playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now, they face off with the Dominican Republic in a one-game semifinals match on Saturday afternoon in San Diego, California.

 

Velez told reporters that before leaving for Puerto Rico the Cuban players met with President Fidel Castro, who loves baseball and is considered to be their leading fan.

 

“Before we left for the Classic, he got together with us, bid us farewell and did not demand that we win this tournament,� said Velez in San Diego. “He just asked us to play good ball, do our best as a baseball team, and show the world the kind of baseball we play in Cuba."

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/sports/fidel031806.htm

 

this takes away every inch of pride one feels after a win. :banghead :confused

 

um.. how???

 

 

 

for obvious reasons, this man destroys the country my family's from and destroys so many lives and then is reminding everybody this is HIS team which it really is. you aint cuban, how do you get off questioning what i feel? i know i aint the only one feeling this. i want to root for this team but its hard when they remind you who controls this team, when the cuban government's going all crazy trying to get all anti-castro sh*t banned and its manager is claiming "this is for the revolution".

 

the same way you and anyother person can question anything that someone says.. i'll question what i want, whent i want to.. deal with it

 

and im supposed to know you're cuban .. how?? :mischief2

 

 

to be fair.. it was my understanding that they were brought it under the understanding that politics would not be brought into the classic.. they have every right to want the signage taken down... lets say you were from any other country.. and you saw a sign being very predominantly displayed at an international sporting event where politics was not supposed to be an issue, you wouldnt be slightly pissed? jokes..

I don't care who wins between Japan and Korea, I just want the team with the best chance of beating Team Fidel to win.

I'm very torn about cheering for Team Cuba, when my mother sees them take the field she gets very emotional and starts to talk about horror stories from the island but at the same I can't help but feel a visceral urge to cheer my mother country on.

 

It's confusing, but in the end I'm cheering for them, I really can't help it. As soon as the WBC is over my politics will kick back in.

 

As for the signs, I actually think they should be banned, noone outside of our community cares about the issue and we shouldn't push them upon people who either don't care, don't want to care or are just ignorant about the issue. If anything I think it turns people off to learning about the conditions in Cuba and it may even galvanize some to go the opposite direction out of pure spite. I know plenty of people who wear Che shirts to just be avant-garde and go against the grain because they are smothered by anti-Fidel/Communist rhetoric.

 

SkyJuice try to be sensitive about this topic, obviously it is your national priviledge to say whatever you want, but try to have some empathy.

Fidel Castro Cheers on Cuba?s Baseball Team

 

SAN DIEGO. - President Fidel Castro has congratulated the Cuban baseball team for their efforts so far in the 1st World Baseball Classic (WBC), said manager Higinio Velez in a press conference on Friday.

 

The Olympic champions faced teams stacked with US Major League players in Rounds 1 and 2 of the WBC, while playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now, they face off with the Dominican Republic in a one-game semifinals match on Saturday afternoon in San Diego, California.

 

Velez told reporters that before leaving for Puerto Rico the Cuban players met with President Fidel Castro, who loves baseball and is considered to be their leading fan.

 

?Before we left for the Classic, he got together with us, bid us farewell and did not demand that we win this tournament,? said Velez in San Diego. ?He just asked us to play good ball, do our best as a baseball team, and show the world the kind of baseball we play in Cuba."

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/sports/fidel031806.htm

 

this takes away every inch of pride one feels after a win. :banghead :confused

 

um.. how???

 

 

 

for obvious reasons, this man destroys the country my family's from and destroys so many lives and then is reminding everybody this is HIS team which it really is. you aint cuban, how do you get off questioning what i feel? i know i aint the only one feeling this. i want to root for this team but its hard when they remind you who controls this team, when the cuban government's going all crazy trying to get all anti-castro sh*t banned and its manager is claiming "this is for the revolution".

 

the same way you and anyother person can question anything that someone says.. i'll question what i want, whent i want to.. deal with it

 

and im supposed to know you're cuban .. how?? :mischief2

 

 

to be fair.. it was my understanding that they were brought it under the understanding that politics would not be brought into the classic.. they have every right to want the signage taken down... lets say you were from any other country.. and you saw a sign being very predominantly displayed at an international sporting event where politics was not supposed to be an issue, you wouldnt be slightly pissed? jokes..

 

 

 

 

f*** it i dont care. i just know you cant possibly know what im feeling so whats the point? and you should know im cuban when i mentioned pride because would i honestly feel any bit of pride watching them win if i was canadian? :plain

As for the signs, I actually think they should be banned, noone outside of our community cares about the issue and we shouldn't push them upon people who either don't care, don't want to care or are just ignorant about the issue. If anything I think it turns people off to learning about the conditions in Cuba and it may even galvanize some to go the opposite direction out of pure spite. I know plenty of people who wear Che shirts to just be avant-garde and go against the grain because they are smothered by anti-Fidel/Communist rhetoric.

In the end, that's the point. Nobody outside of Miami cares about what's going on in the island. No one outside Miami cares that this isn't the best team Cuba can field due to defections and the requirement that you be part of the Communist party to be on the national team. ESPN shows pictures of wonderful Cuba when they're broadcasting the Cuba-DR game, but they forget to mention that it's a location designed for tourists and Cuban citizens are not allowed to step foot inside of there.

 

And as far as the tournament so far goes, it's really amazing, to this point, that this tournament has been awesome even though MLB has done almost everything wrong. They opened the door for huge issues with umpiring by not only using exclusively American umpires, but using minor league ones at that. Every game the United States played was at home, which hopefully will be changed by having the title game rotate countries. I think there would be zero problems acquiring the necessary attendance for a title game in Puerto Rico, Japan, the Dominican Republic, or Venezuela. Let's not forget the debacle with the television coverage, where the US team wasn't even showed live half the time. The pitch counts hurt a lot of teams in this tournament, as did the fact that this is Spring Training for the Major Leaguers. If this tournament were to be held in November after the season (or during the season, but I doubt anyone actually has the balls to do that) Jay Seo and Bartolo Colon, both whom were absolutely cruising in their starts yesterday, don't come out in the 5th and 6th innings, respectively. That does not happen in November. And the format of the tournament is a huge issue. To have the same teams continue to play each other after the first round is insane and is something that is avoided in any other international competition of note.

 

In my opinion, here's a format that could work:

• First Round- Same format we have now
  
• Second Round- Teams play a three game series based on status exiting the round. Pool A winner faces Pool D Runner Up, Pool B Winner faces Pool C Runner Up, Pool C Winner faces Pool B Runner Up, and Pool D Winner faces Pool A Runner Up. Give some value to being the winner this time, with the Pool winners getting homefield advantage in Games 1 and 3 while the Runner Ups get advantage in Game 2
  
• Semifinals- Bracket setup so that the winner of Pool A #1 vs Pool D #2 faces the winner of Pool B #1 vs Pool C #2 and the winner of Pool C #1 vs Pool B #2 faces the winner of Pool D #1 vs Pool A #2. Homefield advantage goes to the team with the best record in the tournament in each battle, with the second tiebreaker being if one won the pool and one did not. If both are tied after that, I guess you could use seeds but they'd have to be given before the tournament and that could get messy.
  
• Final- The two remaining teams meet in a best of three series, with the top seed getting Games 1 and 3.
  

 

Fidel Castro Cheers on Cuba?s Baseball Team

 

SAN DIEGO. - President Fidel Castro has congratulated the Cuban baseball team for their efforts so far in the 1st World Baseball Classic (WBC), said manager Higinio Velez in a press conference on Friday.

 

The Olympic champions faced teams stacked with US Major League players in Rounds 1 and 2 of the WBC, while playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now, they face off with the Dominican Republic in a one-game semifinals match on Saturday afternoon in San Diego, California.

 

Velez told reporters that before leaving for Puerto Rico the Cuban players met with President Fidel Castro, who loves baseball and is considered to be their leading fan.

 

?Before we left for the Classic, he got together with us, bid us farewell and did not demand that we win this tournament,? said Velez in San Diego. ?He just asked us to play good ball, do our best as a baseball team, and show the world the kind of baseball we play in Cuba."

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/sports/fidel031806.htm

 

this takes away every inch of pride one feels after a win. :banghead :confused

 

um.. how???

 

 

 

for obvious reasons, this man destroys the country my family's from and destroys so many lives and then is reminding everybody this is HIS team which it really is. you aint cuban, how do you get off questioning what i feel? i know i aint the only one feeling this. i want to root for this team but its hard when they remind you who controls this team, when the cuban government's going all crazy trying to get all anti-castro sh*t banned and its manager is claiming "this is for the revolution".

 

 

 

And besides, it's easy for us Cuban Americans to root against Team Fidel just because his son is the "doctor" in the team. I just don't want to see that commie a**hole (which by the way, wears an Armstrong band hooraay communism!!!) celebrating in front of the world.

Fidel Castro Cheers on Cuba?s Baseball Team

 

SAN DIEGO. - President Fidel Castro has congratulated the Cuban baseball team for their efforts so far in the 1st World Baseball Classic (WBC), said manager Higinio Velez in a press conference on Friday.

 

The Olympic champions faced teams stacked with US Major League players in Rounds 1 and 2 of the WBC, while playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now, they face off with the Dominican Republic in a one-game semifinals match on Saturday afternoon in San Diego, California.

 

Velez told reporters that before leaving for Puerto Rico the Cuban players met with President Fidel Castro, who loves baseball and is considered to be their leading fan.

 

?Before we left for the Classic, he got together with us, bid us farewell and did not demand that we win this tournament,? said Velez in San Diego. ?He just asked us to play good ball, do our best as a baseball team, and show the world the kind of baseball we play in Cuba."

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/sports/fidel031806.htm

 

this takes away every inch of pride one feels after a win. :banghead :confused

 

um.. how???

 

 

 

for obvious reasons, this man destroys the country my family's from and destroys so many lives and then is reminding everybody this is HIS team which it really is. you aint cuban, how do you get off questioning what i feel? i know i aint the only one feeling this. i want to root for this team but its hard when they remind you who controls this team, when the cuban government's going all crazy trying to get all anti-castro sh*t banned and its manager is claiming "this is for the revolution".

 

 

 

And besides, it's easy for us Cuban Americans to root against Team Fidel just because his son is the "doctor" in the team. I just don't want to see that commie a**hole (which by the way, wears an Armstrong band hooraay communism!!!) celebrating in front of the world.

 

 

 

 

Amen brother!!!

 

 

Go Japan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

I actually was sick to my stomach watching so many communists in the stands. If they love team FIdel and the revolution for which they are proudly playing then why did they leave to come here?

 

My family lost everything when they left Cuba in 1961 in search for freedom. F--- Fidel and all his fans.

Although im NOT communist I want Cuba to win and finally get there chance to prove the Americans and Dumb IN a cans are not the best in baseball and oh yeah i hope they all defect on tuesday even fidels son.

Over 162 games I'll take the Dominican, US, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican and Japanese rosters over Cubas.

Fidel Castro Cheers on Cuba?s Baseball Team

 

SAN DIEGO. - President Fidel Castro has congratulated the Cuban baseball team for their efforts so far in the 1st World Baseball Classic (WBC), said manager Higinio Velez in a press conference on Friday.

 

The Olympic champions faced teams stacked with US Major League players in Rounds 1 and 2 of the WBC, while playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now, they face off with the Dominican Republic in a one-game semifinals match on Saturday afternoon in San Diego, California.

 

Velez told reporters that before leaving for Puerto Rico the Cuban players met with President Fidel Castro, who loves baseball and is considered to be their leading fan.

 

?Before we left for the Classic, he got together with us, bid us farewell and did not demand that we win this tournament,? said Velez in San Diego. ?He just asked us to play good ball, do our best as a baseball team, and show the world the kind of baseball we play in Cuba."

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/sports/fidel031806.htm

 

this takes away every inch of pride one feels after a win. :banghead :confused

 

um.. how???

 

 

 

for obvious reasons, this man destroys the country my family's from and destroys so many lives and then is reminding everybody this is HIS team which it really is. you aint cuban, how do you get off questioning what i feel? i know i aint the only one feeling this. i want to root for this team but its hard when they remind you who controls this team, when the cuban government's going all crazy trying to get all anti-castro sh*t banned and its manager is claiming "this is for the revolution".

 

 

 

And besides, it's easy for us Cuban Americans to root against Team Fidel just because his son is the "doctor" in the team. I just don't want to see that commie a**hole (which by the way, wears an Armstrong band hooraay communism!!!) celebrating in front of the world.

 

 

 

 

Amen brother!!!

 

 

Go Japan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

I actually was sick to my stomach watching so many communists in the stands. If they love team FIdel and the revolution for which they are proudly playing then why did they leave to come here?

 

My family lost everything when they left Cuba in 1961 in search for freedom. F--- Fidel and all his fans.

 

 

Can I ask you something How the hell do you know hes a communist??????? U people only care about fidel and going agaisnt him what about them poor Cubans which have no food because of fidel its not their fault fidel is in power they cant do nothing about it. the Cuban team should not be rooted against FIDEL IS THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE ROOTED AGAINST PELOTA SI CASTRO NO!

Can I ask you something How the hell do you know hes a communist??????? U people only care about fidel and going agaisnt him what about them poor Cubans which have no food because of fidel its not their fault fidel is in power they cant do nothing about it. the Cuban team should not be rooted against FIDEL IS THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE ROOTED AGAINST PELOTA SI CASTRO NO!

Were you not listening when the whole sign dilemma went down after Cuba's game against The Netherlands?

 

And please don't tell me you're seriously questioning whether or not Castro's son is a communist.

 

 

Can I ask you something How the hell do you know hes a communist??????? U people only care about fidel and going agaisnt him what about them poor Cubans which have no food because of fidel its not their fault fidel is in power they cant do nothing about it. the Cuban team should not be rooted against FIDEL IS THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE ROOTED AGAINST PELOTA SI CASTRO NO!

 

 

 

Yes, you're right...Fidel's son probably isn't a communist.

 

 

dude, stick your head out of your ass

Japan will get it done tonight, no worries.

OMG ESPN sucks. They have done such a sh*tty job scheduling these games.

Japan will get it done tonight, no worries.

 

Hopefully.

I cannot believe ESPN is doing this. f***ing NIT.

this such bull...t ball game>>>>>>>>>>>NIT basketball....who frekin cares about college hoops

I am pissed!!! Are you kidding me....the WBC FINALS and they are showing this stupid basketball game?? WTF?!!

I know, it's really stupid. 2OT also!!!!

NIT no less.

This is lame.

 

Just goes to show how much Mainstream America cares about baseball.

Bases jacked for Japan in the top of the first.

 

Pitching change for Cuba.

 

Romero out.

Odelin in.

 

HBP.

 

Japan scores a run. 1-0.

give me triple OT

Thank God somebody won and that was one hell of a shot