It could just be that I'm anxious for the season to start, but good God, that was a fine game of baseball. Korea is a force to be reckoned with, but Japan has Ichiro, some amazing pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, and Prince Yu Darvish. Fresh off of post-victory high, I will report the highlights of the game via Yahoo! and Getty Images.
Iwakuma had perfect form, or at least he does in this photo, and a nice blue glove:
His pitching was pretty much impeccable. I was worried that Japan had used up Matsuzaka and Darvish in yesterday's game against the United States, but damn, this Iwakuma man threw his shit! So few pitches, so many innings, compared to Korean starter Jung Keun Bong.
This crash at second base was nuts. Mordecai noticed something had flown off to the side--it was a piece of the brim of Lee's helmet. Later on a reporter showed the helmet in more detail, with extra cracks on the front and side of the helmet's body. Nutso!
Shin Soo Choo, or S S Choo, of the Cleveland Indians, was not messing around. He had the first run for Korea, homering to left field.
Darvish almost messed it up but Ichiro saved everything. I cannot get over how consistent and reliable Ichiro is.
Here, Darvish has just sunk the S S Choo*. Darvish is also secretly thanking Ichiro for saving the game and Darvish's future contract with an MLB club from dipping into merely single-digit millions of dollars. Japan wins in 10 innings, 5-3.
You can browse Darvish's blog and his wife's blog here and here, respectively, though I'm not sure how often Darvish posts photos. Darvish's father runs a store at the Darvish Gallery, where you can purchase special Persian blue roses, among other things. Excuse me while I go search for Darvish jerseys on the Internets.
*Credits for this great lyrical phrase goes to Joe, spoken before we parted ways after watching the game. ETA: Apparently, the original credit for this metaphor/reference/item of literary genius goes to Nar, who was making jokes about the S S Choo going transatlantic much earlier in the evening. Naturally, everything went over my head until it was pointed out to me explicitly, as usual.
Wow, last night's USA v. PR game looked exciting! I wish I could have watched it live, but ESPN was showing college basketball instead, for some reason. ESPN does have a pretty awesome video recap on their website, though, which shows Shane Victorino looking like a clown and Derek Jeter looking like a pretty bad baseball player. I don't know who's doing the commentary, but I LOVE THEM! Here's an excerpt:
Woman: Carlos Beltran, arguably the best center fielder in baseball. Man: Settle down. Woman: All right. It's true. I said arguably. Take two more looks, it's that good. Man: You could argue I'm the best looking guy in the world, but that doesn't mean it's right. Woman: Well, you could, Scott, but we won't go there right now.
At first, I thought that the male announcer replied, "You could argue that HE'S the best looking guy in the world," in reference to Beltran, which would have been hilarious. Let's imagine for a minute that he did.
One thing I appreciate about men is how they beat the shit out of each other when they're happy. In these photos, Derek Jeter looks like he's about to take a giant, bloody bite out of the back of David Wright's neck.
ETERNAL YOUTH SHALL BE MINE!
Here's the New York Times describing the rowdy post-game celebration:
After Wright’s ball dropped in shallow right and Brian Roberts and Jimmy Rollins scampered home with the tying and go-ahead runs, the Americans sprinted out of the dugout and made Wright into a human-sized pillow. Player after player dived on Wright, turning the infield into a sea of red, white and blue.
“All I know is that David Wright’s face was in the dirt, and all the Mets fans were panicking,” Roberts said.
In other WBC news, last night Korea defeated Japan. Tonight Japan plays Cuba and the USA plays Venezuela. GO TEAM USA!
Via Matthew, I wanted to highlight a certain player from the Korean national team, 1st baseman Kim Tae-Kyun, who helped Korea "power past Mexico" yesterday.
According to the roster he's listed at 6'0"; 220 lbs, which is big, if not quite the size of Milwaukee's bomber. But after looking at his belly above and the video available here, he has got to be bigger than that.
I'm thinking at least 250... Does that disqualify him from the attractive list? I'll leave that to more discerning eyes than mine.
Yesterday evening, the Netherlands rebounded from an 0-1 deficit in the 11th inning to defeat the heavily favored Dominican Republic 2-1 in the Pool D elimination round of the World Baseball Classic. What an upset! Whereas the Dominican roster is studded with Third Base or Bust favorites (Robbie Cano, Big Papi, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez) as well as some very reputable MLB players (same list, minus Cano, plus the entire pitching staff), the Netherlands have Sidney Ponson and Randall Simon...aka "that guy who knocked down the Italian Sausage in the 2003 Milwaukee Sausage Race" (more about this later).
Having spent the morning reading about the history of baseball in the Netherlands, I can now expertly vouch that there is NO LOGICAL OR HISTORICAL REASON for their victory. Here are some interesting facts about baseball (or "honkbal") in the Netherlands, though:
2. In 1925, a team composed of visiting U.S. naval officers defeated the Dutch club, "Blue White," 27-2.
3. The Dutch Major Leagues are called the "Honkbal Hoofdklasse." Teams playing at this top level of competition include: the SV ADO (Den Haag), the Amsterdam Pirates (Amsterdam), the Corendon Kinheim (Haarlem), the DOOR Neptunus (Rotterdam), the Instant Holland A90 (Almere), the Konica Minolta Pioniers (Hoofddorp), the Sparta-Feyernoord (Rotterdam), and the Mr. Cocker HCAW (Bussum). Mr. Cocker is the dog proprieter of this restaurant, it seems.
5. The 2009 national team wears orange hats. Their next game will be tonight at 5:30pm against Puerto Rico.
Yeah, I did that. What up?
But anyway, back to the sausages. I'm tempted to copy and paste the entire Wikipedia page on the Milwaukee Sausage Race here, but, well, instead I'll just strongly recommend it. I am going to copy and paste the section entitled, "Randall Simon Incident," because it's just too good to excerpt:
On July 9, 2003, Randall Simon, then the first baseman of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hit the head of a runner's costume with a baseball bat. The tap didn't hit the human head of Mandy Block who was wearing the Italian Sausage costume, but it did knock her over, and she took the Hot Dog down with her. The Polish Sausage helped the Italian Sausage up and all sausages finished the Race. Simon was arrested and paid a fine, and was suspended by Major League Baseball for three games. He later apologized. Block asked only that the offending bat be autographed and given to her. Simon obliged. Since that incident, T-shirts and other memorabilia popped up with the now infamous words, "Don't whack our wiener!"
Simon was traded to the Chicago Cubs later that season (for reasons unrelated to the incident). He returned to Milwaukee with the Cubs for a series against the Brewers. During the first game, Simon's teammates playfully held him back as the sausages raced past their dugout, and manager Dusty Baker guarded the bat rack. In that same game, Simon purchased Italian sausages for a randomly chosen section of the crowd.
On October 1, 2008, the Brewers traveled to Philadelphia to play the Philadelphia Phillies in Milwaukee's first post-season game since the 1982 World Series. In the middle of the 6th inning, three feebly dressed sausages appeared from the left field gate of Citizens Bank Park in what proved to be a mockery of the Miller Park tradition. The three sausages were then accosted by the Phillie Phanatic at home plate to the delight of the Phillies fans. Simon, who played for the Phillies in 2006, was invited back and received loud cheers as he hit the fake sausages with a large plastic bat. Most fans understood the reference, and laughed that Simon was invited back for the gag.
His pitching was pretty much impeccable. I was worried that Japan had used up Matsuzaka and Darvish in yesterday's game against the United States, but damn, this Iwakuma man threw his shit! So few pitches, so many innings, compared to Korean starter Jung Keun Bong.
This crash at second base was nuts. Mordecai noticed something had flown off to the side--it was a piece of the brim of Lee's helmet. Later on a reporter showed the helmet in more detail, with extra cracks on the front and side of the helmet's body. Nutso!
Shin Soo Choo, or S S Choo, of the Cleveland Indians, was not messing around. He had the first run for Korea, homering to left field.
Darvish almost messed it up but Ichiro saved everything. I cannot get over how consistent and reliable Ichiro is.
Here, Darvish has just sunk the S S Choo*. Darvish is also secretly thanking Ichiro for saving the game and Darvish's future contract with an MLB club from dipping into merely single-digit millions of dollars. Japan wins in 10 innings, 5-3.
