MLB Goes Home Virtually Empty-Handed



"Baseball is not judged by the price of the athletes but by the heart of the people," - Cuban left fielder Frederich Cepeda.

You can say what you'd like about Cuba's fascinating 3-1 victory over a Domincan team stuffed with Major League baseball players but there must be a mixture of relief and embarassment for Bud Selig and his diet soda drinking, used car selling, hotdog munching entourage as the only teams left in this World Baseball Classic are teams with few, if any Major Leaguers.

What it means first of all is that baseball can get back to being Spring Training with the focus on the season ahead, the season everyone gets paid for, the season all the fans are waiting for and the season that matters.

This has all been a nice little lark, an interesting etude in multicultural baseball awaking Caribbean passion we all knew was brimming underneath the surface but let's face it, this isn't the World Cup. It isn't the World Cup first and foremost because the majority of the most talented participants were just warming up their seasons, not winding them down.

Germany 2006 does not begin until all of the most major countries have completed their professional league seasons. Granted, their tired, but at least their fit, both physically and mentally, for the level of competition. Hence the disappointing finish for both the Domincan Republic and the US. They weren't mentally prepared this early for the level of competition. Or so they will say. Who knows.

The better plan would be to hold qualifications in the spring, the first round matchups that involve the relative pushovers, the Australias, South Africas, Chinas, Hollands, etc.

Qualifying for the World Cup entails several years of qualifying matches leading up to a final. Since there aren't very many countries with enough talent to merit inclusion into the WBC, the qualification process for the WBC should be alot simpler and can be broken up alot more easily without overly taxing professional players.

I would also think it would enhance the semi-finals and finals to make them best two out of three. You wouldn't consider a one-off World Series because it wouldn't be a series, it would only be a final. So why cheapen the WBC's final by making it a one-off?

What Bud Selig and his Bat Pack need is a larger vision wherein the MLB season is shortened back to 144 games to allow for qualifiers and first and second rounds to be played gradually over the course of the season rather than crudely jammed into the soft grass of Spring Training like an explorer's flag.

The All Star game probably has to be done away with as well. Let's face it, the birth of the WBC makes an All Star game rather redundant since the best players are already making the rounds in the qualifiers. It would also send a message that the WBC would be seriously integrated into the MLB season rather than as a brief spasm crowding the normal excitement of Spring Training.

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Bartolo Colon held up his end of the bargain over six innings for the Dominicans.

The superstitious Cubans had tossed water from the dugout in the seventh inning of their game because they believe it helps rain down runs for them.

It helped water down the Dominican attack perhaps but it didn't help that in the fifth inning, the Mets blundering third base coach Manny Acta, acting as the Domincan's manager, sent slow and heavy Wily Mo Pena from second with another runner on first on a 3-2 pitch to Willy Taveras. Taveras struck out and Pena was easily nabbed at third. Bingbangboom.

Yes, it is a surprise that a team with no Major League players defeated a team heavily infused with Major League players. But the Cubans have been bonding for years, not weeks and perhaps it isn't as unexpected as one might think when you consider how well the Cuban players know each other and the pride of representing all the Cubans who haven't jumped a rubber raft for the payload of the Major Leagues.

Japan 6 Korea 0



(Kosuke Fukudome circles the bases after taking Byung-Hyun Kim deep to break up a scoreless game in the seventh inning.)

Of course, had this been the three game series mentioned above, this game would never have been played. And for that matter, is it fair that a team that only one of three against their opponent, advances instead?

Former Met and South Korea starter Jae Seo allowed three hits in five scoreless innings, retiring the last six batters he faced. Seo allowed only one run in 15 innings in three Classic starts, all for naught.

Ichiro, whose return to the Mariners is now delayed by another game, mad some provocative remarks in his previous games with Korea. In 1997, when the Korea-Japan Super Game was held, he said, "I feel dizzy with all the garlic odor from the ball. It is even hard to hit the ball."

Before the World Baseball Classic started, Ichiro said, "I want to beat South Korea so badly that the South Koreans won't want to play Japan for another 30 years."

After he lost against Korea on Thursday he could not hide his rage saying, "It is the most humiliating day in my entire baseball life."

Now he has his revenge and he's probably not bothered about getting to the final the cheap way.



(Pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome of Japan connects on a pitch from Byung-Hyun Kim of South Korea for a two-run home run in the seventh inning.)

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Brackets

Eight of the final 16 are in and for those of you keeping score at home, Sports Amnesia has named a remarkable three of those eight. The powers of vision are blinding at times.



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Fat Bill Parcells versus The Amazing T.O.

Yeah that's right. This is what you Cowgirl fans are going to have to witness, Bill Parcells on a bad sausage hangover:



VS.

The Mighty Green Super Hero - (think they make that skin in blue and white?)



Now, listen for all the debates, the Terrell Owens Team Cancer debate, the Terrell Owens This Makes the Cowboys Contenders drivel, the Omigod Match Made in Heaven chronicles, etc.

It's mercenaries recruiting mercenaries and the only other team in the NFL that would have been appopriate would have been the Raiders who already have Randy Moss and their silver and black toothless image.

But the Cowboys scratched Keyshawn from their heads like lice and decided that if they were going to have a loudmouth, selfish quasi super star on their roster, they'd might as well take the better one. People forget that Terrell not only ruined the Eagles last season, or helped anyway, a giant push in the right direction, but he has also put his own career on hold. And there won't be many years left in Terrell because his mouth is tiring him out too fast. Worse than a full season of NFL contact.

What I find more interesting has been the free agent signings and trades that have stirred up some dust in the NFL draft. Teams will now have a legitimate shot at both Vince Young and Matt Leinart if they're willing to pay a price because the Saints signing of Drew Brees who ran for the money straight in a dire situation, means they won't be looking to draft Mr Future QB.

Actually, it all means nothing. TO's signing means nothing. Drew Brees will not turn the Saints around. Reggie Bush will look breathtaking in a Texan uniform. The Jets will still not find an everyday answer to their everyday problems.



Clearly Jay Cutler looks more at home in a Saints-like uniform than Brees or a Jets-like uniform. Here's hoping to Matt Leinart jumping to the Jets.



I dunno if that's So Co street cred or Weeb Street cred, but it's gotta go somewhere.