Well, I'll say this much for the World Baseball Classic, it certainly has energized some interesting discussion in the blogo-worlds, and that aint a bad thing. Some of you may have read my opinion on the rhubarb* between Teams Mexico and Canada on another blog, so I'm not gonna repeat myself here.
However, since this is my humble little blog, I am gonna opinionate about another angle of the WBC debate; that is, whether or not the whole thing deserves to exist. I read somewhere where a couple of bloggers (whose opinions I respect) think the WBC is simply a huge waste of time and energy that should disappear, pronto. No. Way.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say those who think the WBC is such a waste of time haven't seen any of the great baseball that's been played in this tourney. One couldn't have watched Venezuala vs. Dominica and said it's all worthless. Rosenort over at Condition Sensitive mentioned these games have had playoff intensity, and I've gotta agree with that. There's been playoff intensity galore with cool nationalism thrown in to boot.
IMO this is the best WBC tourney of them all. Each time around the baseball has progressively gotten better. I even saw the Chinese infield crank out some pretty smooth bang-bang plays that Davey Johnson's Chinese team couldn't even dream about. I, for one, cant wait for the next round to begin. I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow so I could stay in and watch some of these promising games.
Gimme Dominica vs. Venezuela or Japan vs. Korea over any of the B.S. inter-league crap that Selig and MLB are gonna force down our throats on a nearly daily basis this season. Did anyone notice this latest development in all of our team's schedules? But then, that's a debate for another day.
Now onto cards and ATBATT's selection to play All-Star left field...
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You know Rickey finds a way onto every team ever. Why not onto this team? 
I've just gotta include the best leadoff hitter of all-time on my All-Time All-Stars list. Can you just see Rickey leading off with the rest of the ATBATT team to follow? Whew! Just imagine trying to focus on pitching to Lou Gerhig with Rickey threatening to take second on every pitch.
Rickey held the all-time walks record (2,190) before cheater Bonds stole it.
The mini-set below is from a cool insert set I bought as a whole at Frank & Sons back in the day. The dealer had this binder page ready to go with all the pieces - for just 2 bucks! SOLD ! (ATTBATT trivia: who's that Orioles lurker? Hint: I dunno.) 
Once on base, Rickey's gonna steal and you can't stop him. He's got the all-time most stolen bases (1,406). He stole 100 or more bases 3 times.
Rickey batted leadoff for 2 World Series champions, Oakland and Toronto.
 
Did somebody say Rickey played for a few teams along the way? He was an all-star 10 times.
He holds the record for most leadoff home runs, won 3 Silver Slugger Awards and was AL MVP.
It was once said of Rickey, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall of Famers".
THANKS for reading everybody !
* ATBATT Trivia Time: Did you know the term "rhubarb" was first coined by a Brooklyn bartender to characterize a dust-up between a Dodgers and a Giants fan? Heh.
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