World Baseball Classic

PhillyBirds

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Games today:

The Netherlands vs. Dominican Republic
--The Netherlands come up with a huge upset, but only one white starter between the two teams; Dutch pitcher Sidney Ponson of the Yankees. An entertaining, if not completely dark ballgame

FINAL: 3-2, Netherlands.

Canada vs. USA
--The Canadian team is extremely talented, but rather lefy heavy. The have such MLB stars as Joey Votto, Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, Russel Martin and Matt Stairs. Almost entirely white game, as Jeter and Victorino are the only nonwhite starters in both lineups! Jake Peavey gets the start for USA, but is struggling early. Basically a home game in Toronto for team Canada.
 

ToughJ.Riggins

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Wow I didn't realize the Netherlands was that black; I just caught the very end of the game, that is quite disappointing considering their population demographics. One white starter...Please!
 

Europe

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I think many of the blacks on the Netherlands come from the Caribbean. They have several islands down there. Curacao,Netherlands Antilles.
 

Europe

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The World Baseball Classic is stupid. It looks like Italy has many Amercicans on their team who had grandparents from Italy. The players are just getting into shape. The pitchers have pitch counts. Enough with the foreigners. American baseball has too many foreigners as it is.
 

j41181

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Europe said:
The World Baseball Classic is stupid. It looks like Italy has many Amercicans on their team who had grandparents from Italy. The players are just getting into shape. The pitchers have pitch counts. Enough with the foreigners. American baseball has too many foreigners as it is.
When they say going international, it only meant for non-white foreigners, not white foreigners.
 

Europe

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They just said there are 5 panamanians on the Braves. That's why I haven't paid to go to a baseball game in over 24 years.
 

Van_Slyke_CF

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With the NHL season getting closer to the postseason, and college basketball playing in March, who cares about the WBC? Almost no one in the U.S., that's for sure.
 

Matra1

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Americans just don't 'get' international sporting events. Generally speaking of course. This WBC tournament is the only baseball I ever watch and it's been widely talked about on Canadian sports radio - even though Canada's all-white team got eliminated early on. Watching domestic stuff just doesn't interest me.

In the US press I keep reading and hearing that they don't find the tournament interesting and I even heard some American sports journalist on the radio say it is not natural to cheer for a team based on nationality! Apparently it is more natural to cheer for a corporate 'franchise' packed with mercenaries!

It's the same with hockey and basketball. Outside the US international tournaments are (again, generally speaking) more widely followed than domestic league competitions.

Even nationality of players in the NHL, NBA etc is rarely mentioned by American TV commentators whereas soccer commentators always mention a player's nationality as for Europeans that is an important part of a man's identity. Many North Americans seem squeamish about that as if it goes against the whole post-national/racial egalitarian ethos Americans are expected to hold dear.

A couple of weeks ago in France I chatted with some American about this (he was watching an all-black NCAA basketball match!). He said international sporting events like the World Cup are too nationalistic, and therefore potentially racist since you are usually supporting a team made up of your own ethnic group. I have heard hockey analysts say the same thing about international competitions: They are too divisive!

Anyway, there are probably other reasons Americans don't care about international sports events (eg not knowing or caring much about the other countries involved, natural American isolationism, media vested interests in the primacy of domestic competitions, etc). But I think the anti-nationalist 'we are the world' mindset of leftist sports media people also plays a role.
 

Europe

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Matra1 said:
Even nationality of players in the NHL, NBA etc is rarely mentioned by American TV commentators whereas soccer commentators always mention a player's nationality as for Europeans that is an important part of a man's identity. Many North Americans seem squeamish about that as if it goes against the whole post-national/racial egalitarian ethos Americans are expected to hold dear.

A couple of weeks ago in France I chatted with some American about this (he was watching an all-black NCAA basketball match!). He said international sporting events like the World Cup are too nationalistic, and therefore potentially racist since you are usually supporting a team made up of your own ethnic group. I have heard hockey analysts say the same thing about international competitions: They are too divisive!

Unfortunately in Europe there has been a lot of 3rd world immigration , so you have all these Africans and Asians now being called "french" or "English".Plus now you have people of Serbian or Croatian descent now living in places like Sweden and they are called Swedish. It'a a joke. Pretty soon English of French are just going to be generic terms like Americans, who are black,white, asians etc.
 

Europe

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Dodger Stadium is filled with Koreans watching their team. Please move back to Korea and get out of this country. The announcers were saying that MLB should invest in the U.S. players not just foreign. Well,they shouldn't invest in foreign players at all. They said there is nobody playing baseball in the US now. Have they gone to see college baseball? Of course, they mentioned that the urban player must be developed, but didn't say black. If you want more US players, then ban foreign. It's easy. I am sick and tired of paying taxing in this country so the country can be given away to foreigners. The Unites States is like a dead carcass with vultures from all over the world picking at it.
We should put up a sign on the Statue of Libery that says, "The US is closed for repairs until further notice."
 

Van_Slyke_CF

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This competition means everything to Korea and Japan-hence their hard work to come into it in top-flight shape and ready to win.

I'm curious to see what kind of performance the U.S. team puts on tonight against Japan. The players should finally be rounding into game condition.

Roy Oswalt vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka. It should be a good game.
 

Van_Slyke_CF

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The U.S. lost to Japan 9-4.

An all-Asian final between Korea and Japan on U.S. soil.

The next version of the WBC should have at least its semifinals and finals in Korea or Japan. The U.S. hasn't performed well enough either time, and the fans haven't shown enough interest to do it here again.

Let's bring on the major league season.
 

Freethinker

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Trying to get the players to play "meaningful" games in March is beyond ridiculous. I'm glad this snooze fest is almost over. (Yawn)

Van Slyke, you are right on point. Open day cannot come soon enough.
 

Don Wassall

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It wasn't all that long ago that the U.S. getting knocked off (again) would have been greeted with a lot of anguish, akin to how Canadians react when Canada is bested by other countries in hockey. Weused to havea smug belief that our players were far better than the Japanese, or any other Asian country, or any other country for that matter.


But now there is very little passion for baseball in the U.S., and understandably so given how the sport has been corporatized and globalized and the players turned into greedy mercenaries. As the AP article on last night's loss to Japan almost cheerily put it, "Maybe baseball just ain't [sic] America's sport anymore."


With MLB busy building academies in Latin America and constantly scouting Asia for players, the emphasis on finding and developing home-grown talent -- other than wasting time trying to find mostly non-existent black players at the expense of whites ones -- went by the wayside long ago. To the extent anyone cares, the most common response is "we need more black American players, but they just aren't interested." What a shame, not interested in making upwards of $25 million a year playing a game.


Edited by: Don Wassall
 
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The only time baseball fans are allowed to think in terms of nationalism when rooting for a team is when the makeup of the players is twenty shades darker than yourself or has slit eyes.
 
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The "W" in WBC is a joke. This sport is limited to North America, where it seems to be in decline, the Carribean, and a few Asian countries, where there used to be a big anti-Communist US military base presence. Even the "Dutch" team were practically all from Holland's remaining Caribbean islands, just off the coast of Venezuela.

The Japanese and Koreans continue to love this sport simply because it's one of the few sports where their relatively unathletic frames are not at a disadvantage.

For the Japs and Koreans, it's all about winning - WINNING SOMETHING!!! - and putting one over their near neighbours rather than any inherent love of the game.
 

j41181

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Karl Baxter said:
The "W" in WBC is a joke. This sport is limited to North America, where it seems to be in decline, the Carribean, and a few Asian countries, where there used to be a big anti-Communist US military base presence. Even the "Dutch" team were practically all from Holland's remaining Caribbean islands, just off the coast of Venezuela.

The Japanese and Koreans continue to love this sport simply because it's one of the few sports where their relatively unathletic frames are not at a disadvantage.

For the Japs and Koreans, it's all about winning - WINNING SOMETHING!!! - and putting one over their near neighbours rather than any inherent love of the game.
While the MLB is trying to go Global, the NBA is trying to remain anti-Global.

The reason, black players!!!

The MLB would be All-American if it were black, not white. The reason the NBA remains vastly American is because of blacks. Basketball is much more Global than baseball, and many NBA executives are trying to limit the number foreign ballers in each team. When it's obvious that there are more, and better foreign hoopsters in the world than these arrogant nergoes.

The MLB is desperately trying to look for players out there who are not white. If the MLB had many black players like the NBA, then I wouldn't make this post at all. It always about black players, I am hoping one day the black talent pool with eventually dry up. Considering the small population of blacks in the USA, there are still a vast number of whites in the USA, many of which are never given a fair shot in sports.
 

LabMan

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In Baseball,as in Most American cities,the White American will be reduced down to a bare minimum,being replaced by Latins as the North American Union rushes toward us,the merger of the U.S.,Canada,and Mexico.
 
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