The World Baseball Classic and Curt Schilling

The 2nd World Baseball Classic just finished, in particularly fitting fashion, with an Ichiro single up the middle in the top of the 10th to score 2 to seal Japan's 2nd win.

Here's the deal with the WBC: It was organized a few years ago by Bud Selig (current MLB commishioner) decided that baseball needed to be popularized and televised all over the world, and that baseball should be recognized on an international level. Plus, he gets the political points for creating an event that brings nations together and raises potential income and revenue to smaller countries like Cuba. Either way, the tournement is meant to build prestige and for the world to see players it would normally not see, which is a great idea.

The problem we run in to is, well, it's the American spirit. To the US, baseball is still a job to most players. They play for their paycheck and that's that. I don't look down on that, but when given the chance to represent something bigger than your team or even yourself, that being your country, it would be nice to see our team put their best foot forward. The problem America runs in to is that the WBC comes roughly 4-5 weeks before the beginning of the MLB season. So many players won't play because they want to get in shape with their teams, they want to spend time with their families and they don't want to risk any serious injury before the season. While this is completely understandable, you look at other countries (like Japan, Korea or Cuba) and you can see the energy in their eyes and in their play.

Baseball is a sport unlike all other sports in that it requires heart and a full desire to win more than the other team. I'm not saying that you don't need that energy to take the ball in the 4th quarter and lead your team down the field and throw a winning touchdown in the corner of the endzone to a receiver who catches it over 2 defenders with his toes gliding over the tips of the corner grass blades in the endzone for the winning Super Bowl catch. But baseball is a game that requires you to play with 100% effort the entire game. Baseball only ends when it ends, there's no clock. You can't have a great first half and then play a sloppy second half and still win by 12 points. In any given inning you can implode and lose a 10 run lead. If the other team wants it more, they'll take it.

You could tell in the eyes of the US players that they weren't in it to win it. They were there to put in a good showing, to get amped up a little bit, to be exciting a little bit against Puerto Rico, but then when facing a team that they could beat but would really need to try hard, eh, Brian Roberts will let a few grounders by, Adam Dunn won't chase down a routine single, Derek Jeter won't throw off his feet and Roy Oswalt will just throw it over the plate. Chipper Jones won't play because his thigh hurts, Dustin Pedrioa didn't want to play because of a sore abdomen, not to mention all the guys that just didn't want to play. Ichiro starts the season the same time as the rest of these guys, and you can tell he's already playing in midseason form. That may be because Ichiro is always in midseason form, nevertheless, they wanted the win more. Korea put up a hell of a show taking it into 10 innings, and they played with a ton of heart.

So what's the problem? The problem is that this competition is a new competition, and will only gain respect if it is played with respect. If the WBC will ever mean anything to anyone inside the US, we have to take it seriously. You can be sure that Japan is celebrating right now. Korea is mourning their loss. Puerto Rico can't wait to face us again. And we couldn't really care less. We just show up to work. This is a competition that can really mean something, it can really bring out the best in players and in the game, but until we give it some credit, it never will. Granted, it is in its second round and should take a few more to build up prestige. But if you wanted to buy a WBC shirt or hat, I"m sure that would help out some.

In other news, Curt Schilling retired today. Curt happened to be my favorite player, ever since I learned the game, had him on my fantasy team, watched him pitch in person, watched him win a World Series, watched him pitch through pain, watched him win another world series, watched him care more about the game and his team than himself, and listened to his animated blog. Curt became my favorite player when I learned with a complete game was. When a pitcher pitches the entire game, when he tells his coach that he's going to finish what he started, that he doesn't care if he's winning or losing he's going to be the only one who pitched in this game, that's a complete game.

Karl Ravech, ESPN baseball analyst said this," Seriously, think about some of the most memorable moments in baseball history. Joe Carter's walk-off home run in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series to give the title to the Blue Jays. Yes, it broke the Phillies. But without Curt Schilling throwing a five-hit, 147-pitch complete game shutout in Game 5, the Phillies wouldn't have seen Game 6. So without that effort from Schilling in Game 5, there is no Joe Carter moment in Game 6. Also keep this in mind: That Game 5 gem came a night after a Phillies implosion. They wasted a 14-9, seventh-inning lead against the Blue Jays. The Phillies were crushed. But here came Schilling, the very next night, with the wound still fresh, and he put the Phils on his back to keep their postseason alive."

147 pitches is almost unheard of. Your arm feels like it's going to fall off after about 80-90 pitches. Topping 100 is a big deal these days. 147 is running on literal fumes.

So a tip of the hat to Curt. I can only hope that his future involves coaching or managing, or at the very least a talk show on ESPN.

Is it March already?

So in the past few weeks/months I have:

Managed a restaurant
Been offered many drugs, out in public, at said restaurant
Started ghost writing a book
Left the restaurant
Won at poker
Lost at poker
Starting writing a book of my own
Started writing slam poetry
Finished the entire series of Friends
Fallen in love with Abraham Lincoln
Grown out my beard
Shaved my beard
Danced through a blizzard
Figured out that my chemical make up is such that I am actually happier in the cold
Came up with a title for my abroad project
Started writing letters for my abroad project
Started adding people to my abroad project

I am now currently a freelance PA/writer/whatever you'll pay me for. It has been pointed out to me on several occasions the striking resemblance this title has to the title of prostitutes, to which I can only say that prostitutes make a lot more money than I do.

I also recently decided that I want to buy a Go board. I then realized that it is absurd to buy a Go board. I then came to the conclusion that I should carve a Go board myself. So now I have to find out how to do that.

Be well