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[Baseball] The 2006 World Baseball Classic
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Topic Started: Jan 21 2006, 03:50 PM (3,457 Views)
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Tealey
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Mar 17 2006, 05:08 PM
Post #46
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Mali 'Till I Die (Or Become Inactive)
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Match (16th March)
So there was one final match, for Pool 1, between USA and Mexico. The USA entered the tournament as one of the favourites.

- "WBC"
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ANAHEIM -- The bell tolled for Team USA on Thursday night at Angel Stadium, ending the Americans' quest to win the championship of the inaugural World Baseball Classic.
Even with Roger Clemens starting perhaps the last game of his illustrious career, one of the greatest assemblages of U.S.-born players ever bowed to archrival Mexico, 2-1, in the final game of the second round and was eliminated from the tournament.
Instead Japan, which lost a scintillating one-run game to its archrival Korea on Wednesday night, joins Korea, Cuba and the Dominican Republic at San Diego's PETCO Park for the semifinals on Saturday.
"For so long we have been the teachers [of baseball] around the world," said Team USA manager Buck Martinez, after Vernon Wells grounded into a double play with runners on first and second and one out in the ninth to end the American's chances. "Now I think there's something to be learned from teams like Korea and Japan: execution and work ethic."
Japan will face Korea for the third time in the tournament and try to avenge two losses in the 10 p.m. ET nightcap Saturday. Cuba is slated to face the Dominicans at 3 p.m. ET.
The winners face each other with the championship on the line at 9 p.m. ET on Monday.
The U.S., Mexico and Japan all finished 1-2 in the second round, but Japan won the three-way tiebreaker by allowing five runs in one less inning than the five runs the U.S. allowed in head-to-head competition involving the three teams only.
Had the Japanese not had that inning advantage, the U.S. would have gone to the semifinals by virtue of having beaten them in head-to-head competition, a 4-3 victory, which was America's only win of the round.
"No excuses," Derek Jeter said. "Forget all our other games. We had a chance tonight. We couldn't capitalize on it. I don't like excuses."
In the recent history of international play, the U.S. has struggled against Mexico with the last three elimination games ending in the same 2-1 score.
In the 2003 Olympic Qualifying Event at Panama City, Panama, Luis A. Gonzalez, a member of the current Mexican team, homered off Brian Bruney in the top of the ninth inning and the U.S. stranded runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the inning. That 2-1 defeat eliminated the U.S. from the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The U.S. won by that identical score in the 1999 Olympic Qualifier at Winnipeg, coming from behind in the ninth inning to tie and then winning in extra innings. The U.S. went on in 2000 at the Summer Olympics to defeat Cuba for its only baseball gold medal.
Clemens stepped up and threw 73 pitches in his second start of the tournament, while whiffing four and allowing six hits over 4 1/3 innings. But Japan scratched out single runs in both the third and fifth innings and the U.S. couldn't muster any more than Wells' fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
Afterwards, Clemens didn't make his way to the interview room for the first time in the tournament, but issued a statement that he was "thankful for the opportunity to participate in this event."
"I got to know a number of players from different teams," Clemens said. "They got to see the competitive part of my nature. And for me, right now, it's goodbye."
It's adios for the U.S. as well. The Americans never really hit in the series. Save their first-round clinching, 17-0, victory over South Africa, they batted .238 and scored only 16 runs in the other five games, 10 of them on homers.
Mark Teixeira, who started the last two games at first base instead of Derrek Lee, who was nursing a sore left shoulder, went 0-for-15 in the tournament. Alex Rodriguez had only one extra-base hit and three RBIs. Johnny Damon, who didn't start any of the games in this round because of a sore shoulder, finished 1-for-7 with one double and no RBIs.
"We thought we had put together the team fairly effectively with the combination of players," Martinez said. "We went through a streak where we just didn't hit."
The U.S. got its breaks, though.
Umpire Bob Davidson, covering first base on Thursday night, was spared the wrath of another disputed call after Mario Valenzuela opened the third inning with a double, but later came around to score the game's first run on Jorge Cantu's single.
Valenzuela hit a high drive off Clemens into the right-field corner that television replays clearly indicated hit 10 feet above the wall off the front of the foul pole and bounced back on to the field. Instead of indicating a homer, Davidson signaled that the ball was in play and Valenzuela had to stop at second to the protests of the bench and Mexico manager Paquin Estrada.
"For me and everyone else it was a home run," Estrada said. "The only ones who didn't think it was a home run were the umpires."
Jeter had a gleam in his eye when he was asked where the ball hit: "Off the wall," he said.
Davidson was the key figure in Sunday's U.S. victory over Japan when he overturned a colleague's safe signal and called Japan's Tsuyoshi Nishioka out for leaving third base too early on a sacrifice fly, thus negating what would have been Japan's fourth run.
Replays of that play seemed to indicate that Nishioka didn't leave the base before left fielder Randy Winn caught Akinori Iwamura's fly ball.
But the U.S. lost, 7-3, to Korea on Monday and couldn't take advantage of Japan's 2-1 loss to the same team two days later.
"This is really a big disappointment for us," Rodriguez said. "We really came into this game with a lot of confidence. We felt like we should have played well and dominated this game. But that's baseball. You can't predict the outcome and you can't predict what's going to happen."
Box Score
USA----1 Mexico----2
So that's that. The USA are out. The teams through are:
Cuba Dominican Republic Korea Japan
The next games are on the 18th.
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Tealey 
My Trophies:
FIFA Complex Cup x2 (Football) Intercontinental Cup (Football) Winners' Shield (Football) One Day Cricket League x2 (Cricket) ECB Complex Cup (Cricket) World Club Championship (Cricket) Tour vs. USA (Cricket) Test Knockout Cup (Cricket) Top Of The League (NFL)
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TC Admin
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Mar 17 2006, 06:42 PM
Post #47
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The USA are out!
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 Credit to Bandit! @TheComplexII
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Tealey
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Mar 19 2006, 12:06 PM
Post #48
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Mali 'Till I Die (Or Become Inactive)
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Matches (18th March)
So last night the semi finals were played. Cuba played the Dominican Republic and Japan played Korea.
Semi Final 1
Cuba versus Dominican Republic

- "WBC"
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SAN DIEGO -- The Cuban National team is accustomed to winning. After all, this club is 22-2 in international play, dating back to 2001.
But who the Cubans had to beat this month to reach the World Baseball Classic finals is nothing short of spectacular, regardless of their dominance in previous tournaments. Cuba's 3-1 win over the Dominican Republic in the semifinals on Saturday at PETCO Park capped a trifecta of courageous wins over clubs stocked with Major League All-Stars.
First, it beat Venezuela. Next was Puerto Rico. And now, the Dominican Republic -- which arguably was its best win, ever. Cuba silenced a ferocious lineup in front of a sellout crowd of 41,268 and a nationally televised audience of millions, and did it on U.S. soil, a rarity in its rich baseball history.
The Cuban team is completely void of Major Leaguers. Their names, outside of Cuban lines, are as recognizable as the 25th man on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays roster. Yet, they've risen to the occasion each time out, undeterred by star-studded lineups they've been facing since Day 1 of this tournament.
"For all of us, it has been a matter of great pride to play against teams of this standing, of this very top quality," said right-hander Pedro Lazo. "I thought that the Dominican Republic and Venezuela were two of the nine teams that participated in this Classic that could have made it all the way to the final, but they didn't make it. They're very good teams even though they're not here in the final.
"We are very proud of ourselves, very proud of our performance. It feels wonderful to be part of the semifinal and to move on to the final round."
Reaching the finals is nothing new to the Cubans. This is their 37th consecutive trip to the finals when competing in an international tournament. That includes four Olympic Games, 20 World Cups and 12 Intercontinental Cups.
The last time Cuba finished lower than second in an international tournament was 1951, when the team placed third in the World Cup in Mexico.
Getting to the championship round may be old hat to the Cubans, but they never took for granted their ability to beat powerhouse teams peppered with All-Star names. In that respect, Saturday's victory was especially sweet.
"We are all amateur players in Cuba," said designated hitter Yoandry Garlobo, who was 3-for-4 against the Dominicans. "We don't have anybody playing outside of the country. Therefore, playing against the Major League Baseball players is the greatest victory for us."
Much of Saturday's contest was all about pitching, but another theme -- poor defense -- was a dominant subplot.
The teams played to a scoreless tie until the sixth, when the Dominicans benefitted from two errors by second baseman Yulieski Gourriel.
The Cubans appeared to have worked out of major trouble after the Dominicans had runners on first and third with nobody out and the meat of the order coming up. Lazo induced a ground ball from Albert Pujols, which in turn eliminated Placido Polanco on a throw from third baseman Michel Enriquez to catcher Ariel Pestano.
David Ortiz's fielder's choice grounder moved Miguel Tejada to third, and when Adrian Beltre knocked a grounder to Gourriel, Lazo happily put his fist in the air, assuming the inning was over.
But the ball bounced off Gourriel's glove, and in his hasty attempt to still make the play, the second baseman lobbed the ball past first baseman Ariel Borrero, allowing Tejada to score.
Garlobo cited unfamiliarity with their surroundings as part of the issue, more than plain nerves.
"We have played in World Cups, World Championships, Olympic Games ... the pressure is always the same. Here, it was the first time in this stadium so we had to adjust to the stadium. When we were looking up, there were different colors and we had to adjust to that. Obviously we were nervous but at the end, along the way, we got settled and we tried to play better after that."
They did, and the Dominican lead was quickly erased. Cuba turned the tables and, coincidentally, it was Gourriel who started his club's small rally.
Gourriel knocked a hard grounder to Beltre, but the throw bounced in front of Pujols and skidded past the first baseman, allowing Gourriel to advance to second. Borrero reached on a bunt single to third, moving Gourriel to third, and Frederich Cepeda grounded to second, driving in the tying run.
With Salomon Torres in to pitch and the Dominican infielders playing shallow, Osmany Urrutia snuck a single up the middle, driving in Borrero.
Alexei Ramirez drove in Cuba's third run with a sac fly to center.
The nerve-racking twists late in the game should not take away from the performance of Cuban starting pitcher Yadel Marti. His is yet to be a household name in some regions, but he certainly burst onto the scene in memorable fashion in this World Baseball Classic. Marti, 22, ends his Classic run with 12 2/3 scoreless innings, spanning four games (two starts).
He threw 4 1/3 shutout frames against a fierce Dominican club, allowing three hits while walking one and striking out two.
If Marti was overshadowed by anyone, it was Lazo, who threw 4 2/3 innings to finish the game. He allowed one run (unearned) on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
A different cast of pitching characters will carry the Cubans on Monday, but the players are hoping for the same results. In that respect, they are confident.
"It was a wonderful show, what you saw in the field today," Marti said. "This is a Cuban sport being played at its best.
"We want to express our gratitude to the Dominican Republic for a wonderful game which was played here tonight. We thought Venezuela was one of the strong teams and they could have made it to the final, but they didn't, but Cuba did. It was up to us, and now we have to do our best. We made it to the semifinal, now we go on to the final and we truly have to give it our best."
Box Score
Cuba----3 Dominican Republic----1
So Cuba are through. The team that was nearly banned from entering has made the final.
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Semi Final 2
Japan versus Korea

- "WBC"
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SAN DIEGO -- Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius and Derek Jeter please step aside. Kosuke Fukudome is now at the top of the Byung-Hyun Kim hit list.
Fukudome came off the bench with one out in the seventh inning and poled a two-run pinch-hit homer into the right-field seats at PETCO Park off Kim, the beleaguered Korean reliever. And suddenly, the Japanese are on their way to the World Baseball Classic finals and a matchup against Cuba for the inaugural championship on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.
Fukudome didn't know much about how the former Yankees teammates helped win World Series games at Yankee Stadium in 2001 when they hit late-inning homers off Kim, who was then the closer for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But after a 45-minute rain delay halted play in the eighth inning of the semifinals nightcap, Fukudome's blast sent the Japanese on to a 6-0 victory.
"I didn't have much confidence when I came to bat in that situation," said Fukudome, who was benched by manager Sadaharu Oh because he was batting .105 in the tournament with one homer and two RBIs. "I just wanted to hit the ball hard somewhere and give our team a big lift. I think I was successful in doing that."
Japanese starter Koji Uehara kept the Koreans in check and allowed only three hits, while striking out eight and walking none in his seven innings of work to earn the crucial win.
Uehara is one of Japan's most accomplished professional pitchers having won league championships for the Yomiuri Giants, the Rookie of the Year Award in 1999 and two Sawamura Awards, which is comparable to Major League Baseball's Cy Young. But Saturday night was probably his biggest game on the international stage.
Uehara struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning after Fukudome's homer keyed a five-run top of the inning during which the Japanese sent 10 batters to the plate. Going into that inning, Korea had allowed only eight runs in the tournament.
"I really wanted to shut them down in that inning," said Uehara, who like Fukudome, is a seven-year veteran of the Japanese leagues. "That strong will really worked. This was my first time pitching in PETCO Park. And I felt really good. I've pitched around the world in many new and beautiful ballparks and somehow I've always been successful in those first appearances."
Coming into the game, the Koreans were 6-0 and the Japanese were the fortunate recipients of a gift trip to the semifinals courtesy of a 2-1 U.S. loss to Mexico in the final game of the second round this past Thursday night in Anaheim.
Had the U.S. won, it would've been the Americans against the Koreans, and the 4-3 Japanese would've gone home.
Instead, they got a chance to avenge two earlier losses in the tournament to the archrival Koreans, both taut one-run contests that weren't decided until the late innings.
In Tokyo Dome on March 5, Korea scored twice in the top of the eighth to snap a 1-1 tie and held on to win, 3-2, to shock the Japanese and end the first round with a 3-0 record.
Again, last Wednesday at Angel Stadium, the Koreans scored twice in the top of the eighth to break a scoreless tie and held on to win, 2-1, after Japan's Tsuyoshi Nishioka homered to open the bottom of the ninth. In that fashion, Korea ended a 3-0 second round.
Defeating the Koreans, as much as moving on to the finals, was the team's focus, Oh said. To do so, Oh shuffled his lineup, putting Fukudome on the bench and dropping Ichiro Suzuki down from his accustomed leadoff spot to the third slot. Ichiro responded with three hits, one of them an RBI single in the big seventh, and stole two bases.
"In tonight's game, our goal was to beat this Korean team that defeated us twice in this event," said Oh, the legendary Tokyo Giants hitter who leads all of organized baseball with 868 career home runs. "That was the mindset of our entire team."
Saturday night was a pitcher's duel until Nobuhiko Matsunaka opened the seventh inning with a line double into the right-field corner off left-handed reliever Byung Doo Jun, who took the loss. Korean manager In Sik Kim, who manages much like St. Louis Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa, flipping pitchers in and out of situations, brought in Byung-Hyun Kim, his second of an eventual four hurlers in the inning.
Byung-Hyun struck out Hitoshi Tamura, but Fukudome, batting for Toshiaki Imae, brought back shadows of the past. In Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, Tino Martinez hit a two-out, two-run homer, ninth-inning off Kim to tie the score and the Yankees won in the 10th inning on Jeter's shot off Kim.
The next night, again with two out in the ninth and Kim pitching, Brosius hit a two-run homer to tie the score and the Yanks went on to win the game in 12 innings.
Kim lasted four batters on Saturday night and took the loss. Oh said that Fukudome had been swinging better during Friday's off-day workout and in batting practice before the game, but that didn't change his mind about re-doing the lineup and putting Fukudome back in center field.
"He hadn't been in top form lately," Oh said. "That's the reason I took him out of the lineup. But I had the confidence I could use him anytime during the game. In that inning, the Koreans put the side-armer Kim on the mound. I figured Fukudome would be a good hitter in that kind of situation. In fact, I didn't have any doubt about it."
Oh's instincts were right on the mark.
And now the Japanese are not only back from expected elimination, they have beaten Korea and are one step away from winning it all.
Box Score
Japan----6 Korea----0
So Korea lose their unbeaten record and are dumped out of the competition.
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So the final fixture is:
Fixtures (20th March)
Cuba versus Japan THE FINAL
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Tealey 
My Trophies:
FIFA Complex Cup x2 (Football) Intercontinental Cup (Football) Winners' Shield (Football) One Day Cricket League x2 (Cricket) ECB Complex Cup (Cricket) World Club Championship (Cricket) Tour vs. USA (Cricket) Test Knockout Cup (Cricket) Top Of The League (NFL)
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Tealey
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Mar 20 2006, 04:27 PM
Post #49
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Mali 'Till I Die (Or Become Inactive)
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Interesting Final Matchup to be played tonight
So the first WBC is drawing to a close, but not before we have the final. Rather than the star studded rosters of USA and the Dominican Republic, we have two lesser teams. One, Cuba, was nearly banned from the tournament. The other, Japan, are a big baseball country, but it was still a surprise to see them beat Korea.

- "WBC"
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SAN DIEGO -- This was supposed to be the glamour matchup of the star-studded rosters of the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. What we have instead is something less glamorous, but much more intriguing. Cuba and Japan will play for the championship of the World Baseball Classic on Monday night. The Cubans defeated the Dominican Republic, 3-1, in the semifinals, while the Japanese finally beat Korea on the third try in this tournament, 6-0.
The presence of the Japanese in the finals is not a complete shock, but it still requires an adjustment for the American mind. Japan was thought to be the primary Asian power coming out of the first round. Still, Japan comes to this ultimate moment with a 4-3 record in the tournament. Korea is out, but its record was 6-1. Japan, 1-2 against Korea is in. Korea, 2-1 against Japan, is out. The vagaries of pool play, tiebreakers and all, is a bit harder for us to grasp than the conventional best-of-seven concept.
Still, Japan won the one game against Korea that it absolutely had to win. And nothing can be said to diminish the worth of the Japanese team. It is relentlessly strong in the fundamentals. It can pitch and it can catch, and if these two tasks can be accomplished, defeat can always be a stranger. If a Japanese runner has to be moved over, that Japanese runner will be moved over, one way or another.
It is an admirable, professional, precise style of baseball, but it is also quietly aggressive because it consistently takes the game to the other team.
And let us not forget that the Japanese can hit. They have one of the greatest all-around players in the game in Ichiro Suzuki, but they have additional pop in their lineup. The six runs they scored against Korea represented an explosion. The Koreans had given up only eight runs in their previous six tournament games.
And more subjectively, there is this: The Japanese are managed by a transcendent baseball figure, Sadaharu Oh. This is a man of medium height and build, who hit 868 home runs. Now, observing him, you are struck not only by that remarkable number but by his inescapable dignity. The man's career and contributions to baseball almost seem to demand a world championship.
The Cubans are, from the standpoint of expectations for this tournament, larger surprises at this lofty level. But perhaps their arrival at the top of the baseball world should not be so shocking.
They have dominated international play in the past. It is true that they have never previously participated in a tournament that contained this much talent. But they have the great equalizer -- terrific pitching.
The Dominicans had averaged six runs per game in the Classic, but against the Cuban pitching all they could muster was one unearned run. It was a truly impressive performance. "It's a terrific pitching staff," Dominican manager Manny Acta said. "I can see why Cuba dominated the international competition. Their pitching is legit. They can throw guys out there every single day that can pitch in the big leagues. Their pitching is legit, and that's why they beat us."
So this is not the game that form promised, but it is the game that the first Classic delivered. And it promises to be, like the vast majority of the games in this tournament, something special.
As Cuba's manager, Higinio Velez put it Saturday: "It will be a wonderful game. We know the Asians. We have played against the Asians, we know how the Asian teams play, and they're great players. They put everything onto the field, great effort, very similar to Latin American players."
Fixtures (20th March)
Japan versus Cuba
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just a quick note to say that im going away tomorrow morning for a week, so it is unlikely i will update until next week. i will definitely update about the final when i get back.
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Tealey 
My Trophies:
FIFA Complex Cup x2 (Football) Intercontinental Cup (Football) Winners' Shield (Football) One Day Cricket League x2 (Cricket) ECB Complex Cup (Cricket) World Club Championship (Cricket) Tour vs. USA (Cricket) Test Knockout Cup (Cricket) Top Of The League (NFL)
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TC Admin
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Mar 20 2006, 07:50 PM
Post #50
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Great match up. I think Cuba will sneak it.
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 Credit to Bandit! @TheComplexII
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Tealey
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Mar 28 2006, 03:52 PM
Post #51
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Mali 'Till I Die (Or Become Inactive)
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The Final
Only a week late. The final of the first WBC took place on the 20th at PETCO Park in San Diego. Japan played Cuba.

- "WBC"
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SAN DIEGO -- Baseball fans around the globe have long been clamoring for an authentic world champion. Finally they have one.
Japan is the winner of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. And now, baseball is not only spoken here, it is spoken everywhere.
The Japanese put the crowning touch on the 17-day tournament that was played in Tokyo, Arizona, Florida, Puerto Rico and Southern California with the climax coming on Monday night at PETCO Park.
Final score: Japan 10, Cuba 6.
The tournament captured the fancy and frenzy of fans everywhere, particularly in the Caribbean and Asian nations, whose teams made it to the final games. And Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka was named the MVP.
"The intensity in the stands as well as the intensity on the playing field was absolutely remarkable, and I'm not sure that going into it you could have felt that," Commissioner Bud Selig said about the legacy of the Classic, the first international baseball tournament to include Major League players. "I'm very confident that this will be the platform that we use to take this sport internationally to the dimension that I want to take it and believe that we will."
Selig was right on the mark. The game Monday drew 42,696 and the three sellout crowds in San Diego -- for the semifinal games and the final -- brought the 39-game tournament total to 737,112.
Monday's game was the biggest in Japanese baseball history, and the first time they vanquished Cuba when all the marbles were on the line.
A big reason for Japan's victory was Matsuzaka, who after shutting down the Cubans for four innings on Monday, finished the tournament 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA -- two earned runs in 13 innings pitched.
Heretofore, Japan had lost the gold-medal game to Cuba in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics and dropped a semifinal contest to the Cubans four years later in Australia. At Athens, Greece, in 2004, though the two teams didn't face in the medal round, Japan beat Cuba during pool play, and Matsuzaka pitched into the ninth inning and earned the win.
"When I was told two days ago by the manager that I would be starting the final game, it really fired me up," Matsuzaka said. "This was the first time for me to face the Cubans since the Athens Olympics. They always have these intimidating hitters, but I wasn't scared to pitch against them."
The Japanese have a silver and two bronze baseball Olympic medals. And Monday night, they finally walked away with the gold.
With legends Sadaharu Oh managing the team and Ichiro Suzuki in right field, the Japanese finished 5-3 in the tournament, defeating archrivals Korea and Cuba during the past three days.
During both games, Ichiro was dropped to third in the lineup, and he finished the tournament hitting .364 (12-for-33) with hits in each of Japan's eight games.
Asked if he had turned it up a notch in San Diego, Ichiro said: "It was probably not a good thing for me to think, but I didn't care if I got injured. That's how much I wanted to win the championship."
The tournament wasn't without some grief for the Japanese. Japan lost to the U.S. in the opening game of the second round when plate umpire Bob Davidson negated what would've been its fourth run when he called Tsuyoshi Nishioka out for not tagging up on a sacrifice fly, overturning a call made by his colleague, second base umpire Brian Knight. But the Americans were later eliminated by Mexico, and Japan survived a tiebreaker to make it into the final games, where its starting pitching was flawless.
On Saturday, Koji Uehara held Korea on three hits for seven innings as Japan defeated the Koreans, 6-0. On Monday, Matsuzaka whiffed five, allowed only four hits and a single run, which came on Eduardo Paret's homer to lead off the bottom of the first inning.
At that juncture, the Japanese were already leading, 4-0.
"We had the lead, and I knew we had other pitchers to come behind me," Matsuzaka said. "So I wanted to throw my hardest on every pitch."
The Japanese scored four times in the top of the first against three Cuban hurlers and hit only one ball out of the infield -- Toshiaki Iame's dribbler of a single up the middle that scored a pair of runs.
In all fairness, Cuba had used two of its best pitchers to defeat the Dominican Republic, 3-1, on Saturday -- Yadel Marti and Pedro Lazo. Ormani Romero started against the Japanese, lasting four batters and 23 pitches.
But the Cubans refused to go down quietly, despite trailing by as much as five runs, 6-1, going into the bottom of the sixth inning and 10-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
The Japanese committed three late errors and Frederich Cepeda hit a two-run, eighth-inning homer to pull the Cubans within one, 6-5. For a moment it looked like a thriller, but the Japanese ended the drama by batting around and scoring four runs in the top of the ninth to tie up the first Classic with a neat little ribbon, as Akinori Otsuka pitched the final 1 2/3 innings to earn the save.
For the Japanese, there was a moment of instant elation, and then a moment of recognition that the run of this particular team was already over. But that moment will last long in the heart of every Japanese baseball fan, said Oh, who may have topped his all-world leading 868 homers as a player with this single win as a manager.
"The fans have been supporting us so much," Oh said. "That's why we were able to accomplish this. So we'd like to share this great moment with all them back home, and those who were here."
Box Score
Japan----10 Cuba----6
MVP: Daisuke Matsuzaka

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All Tourney Team
This is the best players from the WBC of this year, all in the one roster.
C: Tomoya Satozaki (Japan) 1B: Seung Yeop Lee (Korea) 2B: Yulieski Gourriel (Cuba) SS: Derek Jeter (USA) 3B: Adrian Beltre (Dominican Republic) OF: Ken Griffey Jr. (USA) OF: Ichiro Suzuki (Japan) OF: Jong Beom Lee (Korea) DH: Yoandy Garlobo (Cuba) P: Daisuke Matsuzaka (Japan) P: Chan Ho Park (Korea) P: Yadel Marti (Cuba)
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So that's that then. The next WBC is in 2009. Thanks for reading.
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- "TC Admin"
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Tealey 
My Trophies:
FIFA Complex Cup x2 (Football) Intercontinental Cup (Football) Winners' Shield (Football) One Day Cricket League x2 (Cricket) ECB Complex Cup (Cricket) World Club Championship (Cricket) Tour vs. USA (Cricket) Test Knockout Cup (Cricket) Top Of The League (NFL)
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TC Admin
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Mar 28 2006, 05:46 PM
Post #52
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Welcome back, Tealey
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 Credit to Bandit! @TheComplexII
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