WBC blues...
OK, so Korea is out of the WBC. You have to tip your hat to Team Japan, they played a consitent, persistent focused game. Baseball as it should be.
Tho' there's a part of me that believes Korea could've/should've won.
So much is written about the rare "passion" the Japanese team played with. An "American passion" with Asian attention to detail play... exactly what Korea had up until saturday night. It's not like Korea lacked this passion. The crowd was into it right from the start. Jae Seo pitched like he was in the World Series. Team Korea's defense was sparkling. All in all, it was a closely matched game, until...
Most baseball news covering the game points to the home run off of BK as the critical moment of the game. Yes, the first run tacked on the board did swing the momentum in Japan's favor... but I think it's what BK did to the next batter that sealed it for Korea. Fukudome, who hit the home run, made a statement about how emotion carried the ball. Without going into it, his story, his hit had all the makings of a backstory most screen writers can only aspire to. This was the "passion" everyone was talking about. BK's response to the home run?
He drilled the next batter.
Which set the table for and RBI double, and effectively shut the door on all of Team Korea's passion that night. He could've let the home run stay the 1 run it should've been. He should've shown professionalism (he still plays pro-ball right?) and pitch to the next batter instead of drilling him (on the first damn pitch!). He could've shown the control he had prior to that one bad pitch. But he didn't.
In my admittedly biased eyes (I am a Yankees fan... if you know baseball and not just the rivalry between Korea and Japan, you'll know what I'm talking about) he was the last stumbling step just short of wining a mile long race.
Losing a baseball game is fine, there is no shame in having been outplayed. I still admire and have enormous amounts of pride (yes, pride) in what Team Korea has shown during the WBC. But all of Team Korea's passion amounted to little more than smoke because of one person's temper.
Congratulations Japan. Excellent game! I'm still rooting for Cuba tho...
Tho' there's a part of me that believes Korea could've/should've won.
So much is written about the rare "passion" the Japanese team played with. An "American passion" with Asian attention to detail play... exactly what Korea had up until saturday night. It's not like Korea lacked this passion. The crowd was into it right from the start. Jae Seo pitched like he was in the World Series. Team Korea's defense was sparkling. All in all, it was a closely matched game, until...
Most baseball news covering the game points to the home run off of BK as the critical moment of the game. Yes, the first run tacked on the board did swing the momentum in Japan's favor... but I think it's what BK did to the next batter that sealed it for Korea. Fukudome, who hit the home run, made a statement about how emotion carried the ball. Without going into it, his story, his hit had all the makings of a backstory most screen writers can only aspire to. This was the "passion" everyone was talking about. BK's response to the home run?
He drilled the next batter.
Which set the table for and RBI double, and effectively shut the door on all of Team Korea's passion that night. He could've let the home run stay the 1 run it should've been. He should've shown professionalism (he still plays pro-ball right?) and pitch to the next batter instead of drilling him (on the first damn pitch!). He could've shown the control he had prior to that one bad pitch. But he didn't.
In my admittedly biased eyes (I am a Yankees fan... if you know baseball and not just the rivalry between Korea and Japan, you'll know what I'm talking about) he was the last stumbling step just short of wining a mile long race.
Losing a baseball game is fine, there is no shame in having been outplayed. I still admire and have enormous amounts of pride (yes, pride) in what Team Korea has shown during the WBC. But all of Team Korea's passion amounted to little more than smoke because of one person's temper.
Congratulations Japan. Excellent game! I'm still rooting for Cuba tho...
posted by vita-min at 1:19 PM
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