Bring It On

Yesterday’s game had a lot of ups and downs. It looked like the USA team would never get anything started before coming back to tie the game and getting a big call on a would be go ahead run for the Japanese team. “The runner obviously left early” said Buck Martinez. Of course it was not obvious and probably was not even true and should not have been called, but it was called in favor of the United States and will no doubt beg the question from an entire nation if there had been a case of favoritism in yesterday's game. Between being away for a week and not caring for the first few days, I had not paid much attention to the World Baseball Classic. So far, there are some things I like.

1) The USA losing to Canada behind 21 year old Adam Loewen. Yeah, I’m rooting for the USA to win, but wins like that are good for baseball.
2) Some pot smoking, red light district visiting Dutchman throwing a no-no against Panama.
3) Cuba making it to round two and beating a solid, solid team from Venezuela with some guy I never heard of in Pedro Luis Lazo tossing the ball 97 mph. Fidel is a horrible person, even worse than George Steinbrenner, but that has nothing to do with this team.
4) The Japanese helmets with the flat finish and raised Japan logo. Those things are as badass as helmets can get.
5) Derek Jeter bunting because he is useless with the bat.
6) Japan playing with the USA team until the end and making it a game that could of gone either way.
7) Puerto Rican pitchers just throwing some filth.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game and am officially into the WBC. I do think there are kinks to be worked out, but there is enough international competition to make this interesting for a large part of the globe and enough hope for the countries that aren’t up to speed that there is a future. I think this thing is going to work out and will only get better from here.

Just an aside on the game though. If you looked at the Japanese players, their body types looked like typical Major League baseball player’s body types circa the 1980’s. It really speaks volumes about what is going on with the player’s in America workout regime, diet, or whatever. The players just are not anywhere near as bulky in Japan as here.

* * *

Curt Schilling gives Chris Duffy a concussion and blames Duffy.

"Bottom line is that ball should not have hit him. You've got to be able to get out of the way of that pitch."

Umm, wow. How about just breaking out the players book of excuses and throw out something insincere like it was an unfortunate incident that you wish never happened.

"In that situation, you've got to man up and say you are wrong when you are wrong," Duffy said. "I saw the tape -- there was no way I could have moved out of the way. For him to just blow it off, that's not great sportsmanship. There is a certain way to handle things. That wasn't it."

Kris Benson shows some class:

"I think we have the talent in here to win also, but I wish the best for those guys over there. ... I had a great time in New York, and there's nothing bad I can say about it."

You want more?

"I think they're going to be great," said Benson after his morning workout for the Orioles. "They've got a lot of the tools that are necessary to win a championship.

"Any time you get a chance to be on a team you think is going to win, you want to be a part of it."

Loser talk...

1. solutions, i saw your comments to asking again and i say, why are you worrying -- this is baseball, something to enjoy, not something to worry about, regardless of whether mets win or lose --
Submitted by: what, me worry?

Too little too late...

4. ed wagner: i understand, it's hard to answer that when there isn't one -- that's my point -- let's worry about pedro's toe when it lands him on DL, not before
Submitted by: you never answer

Ed, I agree with you now that it is too late, but Omar should have worried before and gotten some insurance named AJ Burnett.

I think Kazuo should start just because he has the talent to be decent in this league, but Willie is an ass. He declared it an open competition at second base and had this to add:

"Keppinger really wasn't in the mix. Keppinger was kind of a long shot, and he's still kind of a long shot, but he's there."

He will continually look back at Felix Martinez breaking his leg and have a desire to murder him on what was caled a dirty play.

"I had a friend who was watching a telecast, and they put Willie on the headphones during the game, and he pretty much said the same thing," Keppinger said. "Whatever. I don't know. They don't really say much to me. When they put me in to play, I play. When they send me, I go.

"It's not a surprise. I figured that would be kind of the way it would go. That's all right. I get in there, I do what I can, and hopefully somebody takes notice."

If not for that play, he could have gotten an extended look, though doubtful with Willie's aversion to playing rookies and making them earn their chops.

Phil Humber taking steps towards returning.

On the pine: Philip Humber took his second post-surgery step on Saturday, throwing a side session five days after his 15-pitch, one-the-mound spring debut.

Pedro better be ready for opening day at Shea. I paid good money to see him and I still have nightmares of watching Tom Glavine, who would presumably get the nod, get shelled by the Cubs while snot dripped out of my nose.