Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post used to be big, he used to be a respected baseball writer. I think he still is. I guess the baseballs have just gotten smaller.
Boswell has a paean to the joys of "smallball".
You can find a better critique of the column here, but Boswell has this one passage, I feel I have to say something about.
In the first inning of the WBC title game, Japan paved the way to its championship with four runs without a single hard-hit ball.
Here was Japan's first inning against Cuba (which hardly anyone got to see because we had to watch the NIT!)
Kawasaki grounds out 1-3
Nishioka gets infield single to short
Nishioka steals second
Ichiro walks
Matsunaka gets infield single to short
Odelin replaces Romero
Tamura is hit by a pitch, Nishioka scores 1-0 Japan
Satozaki strikes out
Ogasawara walks, Ichiro scores 2-0 Japan
Imae singles to center, Matsunaka and Tamura score 4-0 Japan
Gonzalez replaces Odelin
Aoki grounds out 4-3
To me this proves that you can score four runs if the other team's pitching and defense are bad. Or you get lucky in one win.
What was the biggest hit for Japan in its semifinal win over Korea? Probably Fukudome's 2-run homer.
If you want your favorite team to rely on putting up four runs like Japan did in the WBC final, I wish you well.
Wow, three straight posts all having something to do with the Washington D.C. area. I need some new material.
And if you want to find out who this is about, you'll have to follow the link: "Don't let the tattoos fool you. He's smart and funny. He just wants the hitters to think he's psycho."
http://tinyurl.com/o9adg
(Bob -- you've got a typo in baseball's)
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