Oh! Japan Are World's First Baseball "Champions"




Manager Sadaharu Oh was thrown up in the air (in celebration) once Japan had finished off Cuba in the first WBC finals, 10-6.



In the end, after all the hoopla, only two Major League baseball players were in the final, Ichiro and the little-known Akinori Otsuka.

In the end, the Cubans, who were almost kept from these games by vindictive American politicians and bitter Cuban exiles, could not pull off the Cinderella story once more; discipline meeting discipline in what promised to be a tactical rather than necessarily super-skilled programme of Major League names.

Suzuki doubled, singled and drove in a run. He also scored three times, including in a four-run first inning that almost swept the Cubans away before they'd had a chance to get started.

However, the Cubans finally pulled to within 6-5 on a two-run homer by Frederich Cepeda with one out in the eighth. Otsuka, the former San Diego Padres reliever now with Texas, came on and retired the side.


Ichiro proved himself to be one of the few MLBers in Major League form.

The Cubans had won 22 of their last 24 games in international competition but were almost out of the running in this one before they got out of the gate.

Cuba starter Ormari Romero was on a short leash to begin with, but was yanked after throwing 23 pitches. He retired leadoff hitter Kawasaki, then loaded the bases on infield singles by Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Nobuhiko Matsunaka, and a walk to Suzuki.

"He wasn't his best today, he didn't have his usual velocity or his control," Velez said.

Vicyhoandry Odelin came on and hit Hitoshi Tamura on the left elbow with a pitch to force in the second run, then walked Ogasawara with two outs to bring in another before Toshiaki Imae hit a sharp, two-run single up the middle to make it 4-0.

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Soriano Refusing Outfield Duty

Alfonso Soriano, traded from the Rangers to the Nats this off season, has openly announced he is refusing to play the outfield and refused to take the field in an exhibition game when he was penciled in as the left fielder.

When the Nationals took the field in the top of the first in a game against the LA Dodgers on Monday night, Soriano wasn't out there. With play just about ready to start, left field was empty.

You'd think this might cause some teams' blood to boil but apparently, the Nats are going to give him another chance on Wednesday night and see if his agent can talk some sense into him in the interim.

Soriano wants to play second base however the Nats already have an All Star second baseman in Jose Vidro. It also makes one wonder why the Nats bothered trading for Soriano in the first place considering it was no secret he had no interest in playing outfield. Not only that but to get him, the Nats traded two outfielders, Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge PLUS pitcher Armando Galarraga.

Soriano told MLB.com that he would decide on Wednesday whether he will play second based on conversations with his wife and his agent, Diego Bentz. "I'm going to think about it," Soriano told the Web site.

According to The Washington Post, labor experts believe Soriano could be placed on a disqualified list, earn no pay and would not accrue major league service time which in turn, would mean he could not become a free agent and would remain a Nat regardless. "In an industrial setting, they'd use the term 'insubordination,' " said Quinn Mills, a professor at the Harvard Business School.

Should the Nationals and Soriano come to such a moment, the case would likely be heard by an arbitrator. Gould, the former NLRB chair, said unless Soriano had a provision in his contract that he must be a second baseman -- a provision that Soriano's contract doesn't contain -- he wouldn't bet against the club in such a case.

"I think it's likely an arbitrator would find that the player's argument would lack merit," Gould said. "The basic thing that a team expects from a player is team play. A club must have some measure of flexibility to make decisions on assigning players to positions. If not, how do we have team sports?"



D-Day for Soriano is today. Best bet is, he will report, regardless.