(WBC) U...... S.... (SPLAT)
 

And somewhere right now, Herr Selig is crying is eyes out :) (Canada up 7-0)

Decent day for the Oriole, Adam Loewen, even though he walked 3.

Foz, we weren't going to tell you, but you should probably update your link since its been like 5 months since we've been at that address.

yeah, I know :P

I'm watching the game, and the announcers said: "... after Loewen had to leave due to the pitch-count rule."

Uhh, can anyone clarify to me what the pitch-count rule is?

Grand slam.

i think its 60 for starters and 30 for relievers or something like that.

You know, the whole point of this tournament is to drum up international interest in MLB, since domestically, nobody really gives a damn anymore.

So, with that being the case, they're probably happy to see the USA lose. That will make the international target audience happy, and more likely to tune in during the regular season.

65 for starters. If a pitcher starts an at bat under 65, he can continue to pitch until that at bat is complete. For instance, if a pitcher has thrown 63 pitches when an at bat begins, he can throw as many pitches to get that guy out. Once that at bat is over, he'll have to leave.

USA making a little comeback. Still down 8-6.

VTek with the Grand Slam to spark the six run inning. Wow.

It would have been funny to see the US get spanked though. $10 says that most of the people who were saying it was meaningless would have been up in arms :D.

Nice catch by the Canadian CF.

is that my boy adam stern?

Yeah, he's having one hell of a day. 3/4 with a Triple, Inside the Park HR and a Single, and then that diving catch.

Dola -- his only out was a questionable call at first base on an infield hit. Utley made a great play going to his right, leaped in the air and threw, and it looked like it might be a 'tie goes to runner' situation.

U.S. would be up if we had decided to sacrifice some offense for defense. Holliday made has of that inside the park homer long before he slipped, and Wells looked equally lost on the ground rule double.

I know they also want to spread at bats around for everbody, but are Damon and Griffey too vain to play in the same outfield? And now with Griffey out of the game, I'm going to cringe on any ball hit to the outfield.

Good timing :) A hell of a relay on a ball hit into the corner stops an inside-the-park homerun and ends the inning for the US.

I'm not watching the game, but I remember reading somewhere that all of Canada's players batted left-handed. Is this true?

Stopped a guy going from 1st to home.

I'm glad I'm paying attention.

Were the announcers saying Damon is a better leadoff guy than Ichiro? I can't agree with that...

I don't think Bay does? Other than that... no idea. lol.

err double dola I guess... nice catch by the CF again. ;)

Crap. Stern's best day ever.

EDIT -- And did you see Utley's reaction when he hit the ball? He thought he just won the game :)

Woohoo!

Man, if Stern had held onto that diving catch he would have capped one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen. What a day for that kid.

Let the finger pointing begin.

And say goodbye to the World Baseball Classic.

I like seeing people I've never heard about do something good. Before today, I had no idea who Stern was... now I do. :D

And the US loses in another international competition...

Sweet :cool:

Are they out? I thought the top two from each pool advanced.

Yeah, they aren't out yet. They have a chance to be one of the top 2.

If only Mexico had a little offense yesterday.

:D :D :D :D

I'm not a big baseball fan, but I have difficulty understanding how Canada beat the USA in baseball.
It's like Kazakhstan beating Canada in hockey.

Canada is not horrible. It's not like they are China.

Although they did almost lose to South Africa. But at least Canada has some big leaguers.

It's closer to the US beating Canada in the Canada Cup hockey tournament.

Wish he'd develop like that in the DKBL...

I just saw some pictures of Jeter and some other Team USA guys standing around. Man, those are freakin' horrible uniforms. What's up with that silly looking "S"? Awful.

Hey, Canada has two Royals on it! Oh... :(
(Matt Stairs and Aaron Guiel, for the curious)

SI

Canada is a baseball playing country. The parallel is us playing hockey with them and winning sometimes.

They're clearly better...and while they're no Japan, it's baseball and on any given day..anybody can win.

Hence what South Africa did yesterday..well, almost. The announcers were jerks. They kept giving that team no respect and it annoyed me.

Yes and no. Yes, Canada plays baseball and they're not bad, but they shouldn't be playing on the U.S. level. I mean, their starting left fielder can't even crack the Royals roster, for crying out loud.

Canada has some nice players, but the clearly the U.S. team is going through motions -- I don't think they are playing particularly hard, and their lineups are using a spring training approach -- instead of putting the best nine guys on the field and maybe making decisions based on matchups, they are rotating through to give everybody their at-bats like it's a spring training game. And whereas in the other games I've seen the other teams are playing good baseball, I think I saw the U.S. maybe once or twice do a smart bit of hitting, like moving runners forward. It's just like our other Olympic teams made up of pros -- everybody plays for themselves, not the team.

Between the last Olympic basketball team, this year's Olympic hockey team and this baseball team, I'd be fine going back and using amateurs and let the rest of the world use their pros. At least our amateurs give a damn.

Who the hell is Matt Holliday and why is he on the US team?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hollima01.shtml


2005 25 COL NL 125 479 68 147 24 7 19 87 14 3 36 79 .307 .361 .505 242 0 4 1 7 11SI

Blech, lost 8-3 to Puerto Rico... No wonder with all those new players. Andruw Jones, who is this newb? :rolleyes: More seriously, why the *beep* didn't the WBC website people try to figure out the correct spelling of names and personal info for some of the selected Dutch baseball stars of the past ten years? Like Dirk van 't Klooster, Percy Isenia, Johnny Balentina, Reily Legito, who were part of the first team ever to beat Cuba during the Olympic Games?

I don't think this loss is a big deal. If Mexico beats Canada, and USA beats S.Africa, how do they handle 3 teams tied at 2-1? Nevermind, I just looked it up.



So the Mexico/Canada game needs to have a lot of runs and the USA should be in the next round. BTW, Al Leiter is done, how did he make this roster? 7-12, 6.13 era last year gets you on the squad???

You guys make it sound like Team Canada is a bunch of nobodies. Don't forget, Canada has produced a recent Cy Young winner (Gagne) and MVP (Larry Walker), not to mention some of the league's best young pitchers with guys like Rich Harden.

What? None of them are on the team. Oh.

Well, Stubby Clapp is good too.

How can a team with Derek Jeter on it possibly lose?

I heard Buck Martinez talking about that over the weekend, basically said that "the Yankees sent him down here & said he'd been looking real good" and they wanted/needed another LHP.