World Baseball Classic 2023

[Texsox]

42 minutes ago, bmags said:

I gotta tell ya...this was awesome.

I also can't remember the last time baseball fans were like "THIS IS AWESOME YOU GOTTA SEE THIS" and not "Yeah well it's an acquired taste"

My son called me to make sure I was watching. The last time I remember doing that was calling my uncle during the 86 Masters 

[caulfield12]

https://www.sportsinfosolutions.com/2019/10/02/scouting-some-of-japans-top-potential-mlb-pitchers/
 

obviously a bit out of date…Senga just signed with the Mets and Pierce Johnson with the Padres out of Japan

also Nick Martinez who was on Team USA

“Nicholas Andres Martinez is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball. He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres, and for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. Wikipedia”

[joejoesox]

12 hours ago, Tnetennba said:

 

can you imagine the Sox ever acquiring a player of Ohtanis caliber? 

[caulfield12]

5 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

can you imagine the Sox ever acquiring a player of Ohtanis caliber? 

Tanaka was the closest…but we’re essentially looking at 7x the biggest single contract the Sox have ever handed out.

Way too risky for a mid tier franchise

 

 

[caulfield12]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2023/03/22/baseball/wbc-us-japan-final/

For Japan, the WBC isn't just meaningful — it's everything

 

“I think it was a very precious experience for the Japanese pitchers and also all the kids in Japan who are watching that might think, ‘oh, that’s really cool,’ and they might want to make up their mind to want to be baseball players,” Kuriyama said. “So I think that was a very great thing to do.”

Kyle Schwarber homered off Darvish in the eighth to cut Japan’s lead to one run.

Ohtani walked the first batter of the ninth, but a double play set up a showdown against Trout — giving one of the most exciting and dramatic World Baseball Classics a storybook matchup in the championship game.

The scenes in Miami that accompanied Ohtani vs. Trout was the best answer as to how much the event meant to baseball fans.

“I can’t even imagine being in that moment, the two best players on the planet locking horns as teammates in that spot,” DeRosa said. “The fans won tonight. I’m just — I’m chapped we didn’t win.”

 

Before the final, Ohtani gave a pep talk where he urged his teammates not to be in awe of the MLB stars on the U.S. team, but to see them as equals in order to surpass them.

“All the players know them,” Ohtani said. “I didn’t want them to be passive. Show respect, but at the same time, stay aggressive, stay confident.”

“I think many great pitchers that represent Japan came here, and many starting pitchers started pitching in the middle of the innings,” Ohtani said. “So I think that all the pitchers, they were able to do their best, and I really appreciate their effort.”

 

It is not easy to sum up what the WBC means to Japan. The nation approaches the tournament with a zeal that is almost unmatched around the globe. Japan installed manager Hideki Kuriyama in Dec. 2021 — U.S. manager Mark DeRosa, for instance, was not named until Aug. 2022. The Japanese held their first training camp for the tournament in the middle of February, long before many teams, and practiced — not played, simply practiced — in front of packed stands in Miyazaki.

“I think baseball is great and it kind of describes life, I think,” Kuriyama said during his postgame news conference after the final. “Not just only Shohei, all the Japanese players, and I imagine that the last scene was created by everybody.”

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by caulfield12

[Kyyle23]

Oh silly Keith 

[Taz]

If we had to lose to someone, Japan would be the one I would have chosen tbh. Congrats to them.

[Chisoxfn]

14 hours ago, bmags said:

I gotta tell ya...this was awesome.

I also can't remember the last time baseball fans were like "THIS IS AWESOME YOU GOTTA SEE THIS" and not "Yeah well it's an acquired taste"

I got to have baseball convos around my office and kept hearing people talk about it - and no one around my office talks this stuff. Was great for the game and just a heck of a lot of fun. 
 

Part of this goes back to me - baseball season is just too damn long. 

[joejoesox]

MLB will obviously not take advantage of all the media attention around the WBC and direct it towards their product. They're so bad at what they do, not because they're inept, but because they refuse to take risks and refuse to invest in a more global brand. 

 

[caulfield12]

https://theathletic.com/4338148/2023/03/23/world-baseball-classic-next-steps/

[caulfield12]

Japan's 3-2 victory over the USA drew 5.2 million viewers across the FS1 cable network, Fox Deportes, and Fox Sports' streaming platforms, according to MLB. That made it the most-watched WBC game telecast ever on American TV. It was up 69% from the last WBC Final in 2017. FS1 alone averaged 4.5 million viewers.

[caulfield12]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/winning-wbc-angels-shohei-ohtani-001214543.html