I have a confession to make. I am that most miserable of creatures- I’m a Cubs fan. I also root for the Pirates. Both teams tease you along during the season, then let you down at the end.
Today during the WBC, I figured the same thing would happen, after having the S.O. get me all excited for Japan, I figured those big, burly Cubans would be just smacking hit after hit out of the Stadium. However , Ichiro and the boys proved me wrong.
As Harry Caray would say:
HOLY COW!
NIPPON WINS! NIPPON WINS! NIPPON WINS!
You heard that right, Japan beat the brutes from Cuba 10-6.
Is this a great country or what?
SAN DIEGO Â? Forget beisbol???????. This was yakyu??? ?at its best, and the inaugural World Baseball Classic belongs to Japan.Ichiro Suzuki and his less-famous countrymen beat Cuba 10-6 in the championship game onday night, ripping a page out of CubaÂ?s scorebook by winning a major international tournament.
Suzuki doubled, singled and drove in a run. He also scored three times, including in a four-run first inning that proved Cuba’s pitchers are vulnerable after all.Cuba’s fans perked up when their team, wearing its lucky red uniforms, pulled to 6-5 on a two-run homer by Frederich Cepeda with one out in the eighth.But Suzuki singled in the ninth, scoring Munenori Kawasaki, and made it 7-5. Japan, playing yakyu, which means field ball, ended up scoring four runs in the ninth, and Cuba got one in its
half.
Japan’s Ichiro Suzuki watches his double during the fifth inning of the World Baseball Classic championship game against Cuba, Monday, March 20, 2006, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)?
?’ll bet there is some Yen or Dollars coming his way after this. Anyway, its a great thing, especially since it probably means the Cuban guys are on their way to a re-education camp. Tomorrow I’m off to Korea, so it will be interesting to see what the papers say there. Something tells me they won’t like it over on the Penisula………………..
What say you?
