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Live from PETCO Park! This game is also being shown on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. And some network in Japan too. And I think Cuba is hijacking the ESPN signal. Joe Morgan could be America's newest weapon in the propaganda war!
The starting pitchers for tonight's game weren't announced ahead of time, but most likely Sadaharu Oh will send hard-throwing Daisuke Matsuzaka to the mound. Cuba will likely start Ormari Romero or Vicyohandry Odelin.
Whoever is the starting pitcher may not matter much as both managers (Oh and Cuban manger Higinio Velez) will not hestitate to go to the bullpen if either starter appears to be having a bad day. Velez had his bullpen up pretty much all the time during the semifinal with the Dominican Republic. Oh has Shunsuke Watanabe available to pitch in the final and he's thrown two tough good games against Korea in the tournament.
Matsuzaka pitched against Cuba in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and picked up a win with 8 1/3 strong innings. Odelin picked up the loss in that game. Japan hit three home runs in that game.
The only major leaguer who will be starting in the game is Ichiro Suzuki, but don't think that the level of play will be AAA or AA. This should be a well-played, close game.
Cuba survived a battle of errors against the Dominican Republic in a 3-1 win Saturday. Cuba had 12 hits (all singles) and took advantage of an Adrian Beltre error for the win. As Velez said before the game, it was a battle between the hombres against the nombres. Perhaps this will be a matchup between the namae and otoko, which unfortunately doesn't rhyme.
Japan avenged two earlier losses to Korea with a 6-0 win highlighted by a 2-run pinch homer by Kosuke Fukudome and another solo homer by Hitoshi Tamura. Koji Uehara completely shut down the Korean attack.
In the USA, the final was supposed to be a chance to see Roger Clemens staring down Albert Pujols. Instead, it will be a chance for Americans to see just how hard Daisuke Matsuzaka can throw. And how well the mostly unknown Cuban hitters will fare.
It's just one game and predicting what can happen in one baseball game is a fool's errand.
That said, I think Japan will win. Please feel free to call me a fool after the game is over. Or before it starts if it makes you happy.
Game time temps should be in the high 50s in San Diego. A 10% chance of rain is forecast.
Prensa Latina preview in English, Cuban paper.
FINAL SCORE Japan 10, Cuba 6
WP -- Daisuke Matsuzaka
LP -- Ormari Romero
Save -- Akinori Otsuka
HRs -- Eduardo Paret, Frederich Cepeda
Japan scores four in the first without hitting the ball out of the infield. They stretch the lead to 6-1, but Cuba rallies to make it 6-5 as Cuba takes advantage of some Japanese errors. But Japan scores four in the ninth to break open the game.
Daisuke Matsuzaka is named tournament MVP.
Congratulations to Japan!
JAPAN
Kawasaki SS
Nishioka 2B
ICHIRO! RF
Matsunaka DH
Tamura LF
Satozaki C
Ogasawara 1B
Imae 3B
Aoki CF
Matsuzaka P
CUBA
Paret SS
Enriquez 3B
Gourriel 2B
Borrero 1B
Cepeda LF
Urrutia RF
Garlobo DH
Pestano C
Ramirez CF
Romero P
Umpire watch:
Home plate will be Tom Hallion.
1st base umpire ... BOB DAVIDSON
Fortunately there are foul line umpires so Davidson shouldn't get involved in any home run calls.
SHOULDN'T
However, I would expect bunting aplenty tonight.
Bob -- can you email a sound file of the opening riff from the Rockford Files? That and Barney Miller are what TV music is all about.
(waits)
(waits)
"BUT WHAT ABOUT HILL STREET BLUES?"
-- anonymous baseball writer
It's the NIT!
If you go to MLB.tv, you get to see
THE FREAKIN' NIT!!
Meanwhile, Ichiro!'s up, Japan might be threatening, and some boat race is killing dead air time.
I'm getting nothing in particular, but I do have a Mac.
My OS doesn't support IE anymore unless I do a lot of finagling.
It's easier to curse ESPN!
Everyone is entitled to use one profanity to describe ESPN now! One free shot everybody!
Thank God!
And no, that's not German.
NOBODY!
Even if my alma mater were playing, I wouldn't have cared.
Se atornilla Cuba
That doesn't really convey what's happened though.
It was rumored he did, but he doesn't.
He just throws really hard. And according to Karim Garcia, he has a changeup slider.
Which is far from the case.
http://tinyurl.com/qtyyv
Bob, I'm assuming that you're cheering for Japan. I think it would be kind of funny if Cuba won since originally they weren't slated to be in the tournament. I guess that makes me a commie.
A large chunk of the US media seems to be pulling for Cuba. For reasons which I don't fully understand.
The Japanese like to have their cheering organized and they aren't likely to improvise their own cheers.
Pretty much every cheer is:
Gattobase (insert last name)!
I actually really wanted to see the beginning of this game too, if only to see if Cuba and Japan did any sort of awesome pre-game handshake to recognize how great this tournament has actually been, a la 1991 World Series Game 7.
But nope. We had NIT basketball instead. Thank you ESPN.
Mat - Su - Zah - Kah
Is Jon Miller blind? Matsuzaka threw a 94 fastball, straight as an arrow and Miller said "oooh and a breaking ball"
I think that's how it works.
Who wasn't even considered for the Japanese team.
New shows: The Office theme is nice.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Wouldn't stop LaRussa from trying, mind you. He's got a man-crush on So.
The Japanese didn't need Hideo Nomo on their team because they wanted good players.
I thought Matsunaka would have gone another inning.
But Watanabe looked pretty nasty to the first batter.
He says So Taguchi is the world's happiest person.
His official name in Japan is SHINJO. His name does not appear on scoreboards in Japanese. It's always SHINJO.
Of course, nearly every adult in Japan is called by his last name unless you are very close friends.
You can learn that just from watching "Iron Chef" reruns.
So do the coaches. It's just one of those things.
When Nagashima managed the Giants he did wear his number 3. I don't know what number Oh wore when he managed the Giants.
Probably something along the lines of "San Lucille"
I can't count in Japanese beyond three.
I checked the roster for the Softbank Hawks, the team Oh manages now. He wears 89 for them.
Going to the bottom of the 8th, down 3, Cuba has a win expectancy of .067
Poor guy.
With hands of stone and poor strike zone judgment.
Cuba's win expectancy now up to .233
And what would have happened if Oh had just let Matsuzaka stay in?
Japan's win expectancy up to 97.4%
vr, Xei
But it's at 98.7% now.
vr, Xei
Because the people in Japan are at work now.
But the Japanese aren't colorful. They aren't emotional. But I think there is going to be come celebrating in Japan if this score holds up.
vr, Xei
I doubt anyone is going to defect from the Cuban team.
He's 0 for 2 with 3 RBI.
vr, Xei
vr, Xei
vr, Xei
Well, still 3 outs to go.
vr, Xei
Hey guys, stay in the dugout!!
Bunting? Is Jim Tracy in the tunnel giving signals?
vr, Xei
as
XXXX XXXXXX is to hunting.
vr, Xei
The Cardinals are wondering where their World Championship trophy for last year is too.
There is also a corollary:
Life is unfair.
vr, Xei
Ichiro did come through tonight.
The host country in 2009 hasn't been decided. The tournament will likely have a different format with the top 8 teams automatically advancing and playing the final rounds during the All-Star Break.
Some early round games might be played in Cuba.
Plenty of good seats available for those games.
Does Korea have any domed stadiums?
161 - Right on. Hopefully one of the major networks will see how well this one drew over random bball games and learn a lesson!
162 - It would be pretty cool if the defending champion automatically hosted the Finals in 2009, and then every four years after. It would be an interesting new tradition for what has already rightly been called a Classic.
http://tinyurl.com/mqebr
Then again, next Monday I'm off for Cesar Chavez's Birthday.
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