Japan is victorious!

I watched the finals of the World Baseball Classic last night, Korea vs. Japan. It was a terrific baseball game, filled with everything a baseball fan could ask for: great pitching, clutch hitting, superb defense, the ever-illuminating commentary of Bud Selig, etc. I’m kidding about Selig, of course – his smugness was matched only by the utter meaninglessness of his platitudes. Joe Morgan, for his part, made sure the American perspective was not lost. “Now, here’s another example of how the Asian teams differ from American baseball,” he kept saying. Throughout the evening, Morgan struggled to pronounce the names of the Japanese and Korean stars.

           

But enough snark. The quality of the game, as ever, rose above the foolishness. Ichiro Suzuki – the face of Japanese excellence in the sport for the past eight years in America – won Japan its second straight WBC title with a two-out, two-RBI single in the tenth inning. That was after Korean star Bum Ho Lee forced a tenth inning with a two-out RBI single of his own, ripping a wicked Yu Darvish slider into left field in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at three runs apiece. Put simply, it was a game worthy of Olympic-level excitement, full of nationalism and tradition. The teams were talented, the players passionate, and the game as such reflected the mood of an international championship.             

 

Even 30 minutes after his team’s defeat, the manager of the South Korean national baseball team remained in the dugout, respectfully observing Japan’s congenial post-game affair. Carrying the resigned look of a man who had come agonizingly close to victory, he munched sunflower seeds as Japan’s newest national heroes grinned and laughed and held their nation’s flag.

You know it’s a monumental upset when…

…Even the Japanese are saying “What the heck!?” (in Japanese, of course).

The most compelling story of the past week comes out of the World Baseball Classic, which recently pitted the Netherlands — not a perennial baseball powerhouse, to say the least – against the massively favored Dominican Republic. Anyone with half a brain cell would bet against a Dutch team whose most prominent member is Sidney Ponson (those of you familiar with Baltimore Oriole baseball understand the shame of that distinction). Nevertheless, in not one but TWO DIFFERENT GAMES, the Netherlands bested a team that boasts a roster stuffed with 23 major league ballplayers. After such a feat, which qualifies as one of the great upsets of all time, what else is there to say? Naturally, David Ortiz finds the right words:

“These guys, they did it,” David Ortiz said. “They beat us. I tell you, the whole world is shocked now. Even in Japan, they’re like ‘What the heck?’ in Japanese.” 

Here’s to hoping the Dutch keep on keeping on, all the way to the championship. (Although of course I’ll be pulling for David Wright and co. in the meantime.)