Tag: baseball

The Korean national baseball team played another outstanding well pitched game to defeat Japan 2-1 and advance to the World Baseball Classic semifinals. Here is my favorite quote from the article:

Lee Jong-beom, the hero of the game, said: “On hitting the decisive two-base hit, I thought how lucky I was to be born in South Korea.”
“My colleagues and I were excited throughout the game, listening to the slogan ‘Dae Han Min Kuk (Republic of Korea)’ from the cheering squad.”
Despite the win, he said Japanese baseball remains a notch above the level seen in South Korea.

I don’t know what being born in South Korea has to do with the decisive two-base hit but I don’t agree with his sentiments that the Japanese play better baseball than Korea. The Japanese appeared to be trying their best to beat Korea and they had two opportunities to do it and couldn’t get it done.

The Korean victory in turn will help the US enter the semifinals if they can beat Mexico, which the way the US is playing (crappy) is by no means a sure thing. Of course the Korean media is hyping up the fact that the Koreans have helped the Americans again like they did during the last World Cup, the Marmot’s Hole has the inside scoop on that. Than of course the Korean media has to bring up all the times they were “cheated” of glory to the Korean race by the wicked Americans:

In the Sydney Games of 2000, the Korean team failed to make it into the finals from the round of four because of a bad call, and in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, short-track skater Kim Dong-seong was deprived of his gold metal because of the “Ohno Incident.” And two years ago, during the 2004 Athens Games, gymnast Paul Hamm took away Yang Tae-yeong’s sure “gold.” At each turning point, the party that tripped up Korea for doubtful reasons was none other than the United States.
Despite this, Korea has played the role of rescuer each time the United States has faced crisis. A typical instance was the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.

Interesting, no mention of the help from the referees in the last World Cup that allowed Korea to advance in the first place. Plus nothing about the Roy Jones Jr. boxing match scandal during the Seoul Olympics. It was a great win by the Korean team and they should be excited about it, but the in your face hyper nationalism has got to go IMHO. Could you imagine what would happen if the US team planted the American flag on a pitching mound in a Korean stadium like the Korean team did in Anaheim?

I’m actually happy that the US team lost to Mexico today eliminating them from the World Baseball Classic because I think the Koreans would have whooped them again in a rematch. The US team was a joke and an embarrassment. I said it once and I will say it again give me amateur athletes that care about the game. These professionals are a disgrace.

Instead of playing the US again the Koreans will be matched up against Japan for the third time. Will the third time be the charm for Japan? I guess we will find out. If Japan wins do you think they will plant their flag on the pitcher’s mound?

Team Korea has handed the US baseball team a thumping in the World Baseball Classic:

Power hitting and steady pitching from Korea’s national baseball team lead a stunning 7-3 triumph over favored Team USA on Monday in Anaheim, Calif.

Lee Seung-yeop of South Korea belted the first inning solo homer off Dontrelle Willis, the National League’s pitcher with the most victories last season. “Big Choi’’ Choi Hee-seop, who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers, followed with a fourth inning three-run homer against the Americans. Reliever Koo Dae-sung threw scoreless 3 innings.

Go over to Robert’s site for many great comments about the game, but the consensus is that the US team sucks and the Korean team deserved to win. Robert declares a day of national shame but I don’t really see anything to be ashamed about. The US team is a bunch of overpayed premadonas that got beat by a better Korean team. End of story. It is not the end of the story for the Korean media as Nomad pointed out in this posting.

These “all-star” (I use the term loosely) teams used now in international competitions are not working for the United States. Basketball, Hockey, and now Baseball all-star teams are failing because of these big money players not showing any team work, not playing as hard as they should, and just the fact they don’t appear to really care if they win or lose because they got a long season ahead of them and millions of dollars at stake if they get hurt before the season thus they do not give maxiumum effort.

Compare this to the Korean team that demonstrated lots of teamwork and was going all out and playing hard to beat the US and deserved to win.

Maybe it is time for the US to go back to amateur athletes who actually care about winning the game as much as Lee Seung-yeop, Park Chan-ho, and company displayed against the US.