There's Rain in the Forecast

Aloha, everybody, 

How about that WBC? That was a pretty darn good tournament, right? Of course, I'm very happy that Team USA and their lucky eagle brought the trophy home. 

In celebration of the good ol' USA winning it all, and with Opening Day just around the corner, I thought it would be a good idea if our little community had some rain. Cardboard rain, that is. 

First I had to step outside and check the weather....

What's it like over there in the east? Are you folks still buried under all that snow?

See that lumpy shadow on my left? I put on a few pounds since last year, but not that many. That shadow is my rainmaking kit. 

As you can see, it was a nice day, so my humble little kit and I headed over to the post office. 

Cardboard rain at the ready....

And then it was gone. 

With my mission accomplished, I headed for home. 

And then I saw it. Calling me from across the street...

Dare I?  

Just when I thought I was out...

They pull me back in! 

Aloha! 

Playing Taps For Team USA

Hey everybody,

I was really hoping this was going to be the year that Team USA is able to step up and make a serious play for the WBC Championship.  Sure, it's a fledgling, young, imperfect, and at times, deeply frustrating tournament, but it's nonetheless a REAL tournament that U.S. MLB cannot and should not ignore or continue to treat like a quaint distraction. 

And if we are gonna play in it, then we should play to win it, period.  Among the many WBC naysayers out there is one group that says this tourney might injure their favorite players, so they don't like it.  Anybody who's played sports for fun or money will tell you that one of the surest ways to get hurt is to play a physical game half-assed or to not take it seriously when you play against a serious opponent.  Take the tourney seriously or get (pushed) outta the way.

This time Team USA managed to open the WBC by losing their first game, and from there they went on to hit one dramatic grand slam for one dramatic win...

One grand slam comin' up - courtesy of Captain America

...and then they played the rest of the tournament like dramatic game-winning grand slams can simply be ordered up at any time in order to make up for mismanaged bullpens. Welcome to Joe Torre baseball!

Apparently all those years of managing powerhouse Yankees teams (that even I could have managed) spoiled him for running any type of "regualr" team.

That said, Team USA gave us some quality baseball performances. Starting pitchers brought enough game for us to still be alive in the tourney.

Dickey got dinged a bit, but always recovered well enough to keep the club close..

The worst possible pitching at the worst possible time came from Cleveland's Vinnie Pestano.  He came into the elimination game against Puerto Rico with the game still very much on the line.  But he promptly walked two, including walking in a run with the bases loaded. 

...but Manager Torre, who 5 minutes prior had an quick trigger finger in pulling starter Ryan Vogelsong, felt the urge to stick with Iffy Pestano.  I'm sure Torre was counting on some magic grand slam to just materialize later.  You can't really blame a guy who clearly hasn't got it for proceeding to blow it further, and that he did (yes, I was referencing both Pestano and Torre). We never recovered.

While there were offensive spots in the lineup that stunk it up...

Exhibit 'A'

...there were a couple of guys who shone in the WBC spotlight...

Exhibit A

It's going to be a long few years until the WBC makes its way around again, and while I'm disappointed as a Team USA fan that we're out of it, I'm very happy as a Dodger fan at the way the Dodgers are being represented on other teams...

Hanley Ramirez has been blasting WBC baseballs out of the park for Team Dominica

Nick Punto batted .421 for Team Italy

Adrian Gonzalez blasted a sweet homer for Team Mejico, unfortunately it was against Team USA

Jansen has jumped over to pitch for the Dutch.  I'm looking forward to him getting a chance. 

Plenty has been printed that "we woulda won if Captain America (David Wright) had not been injured and dropped out of the lineup."  I don't buy that theory myself.  It's happened before that a committed star has been injured and left the rest of the team to finish the crucial remaining games without him - and the team managed to rally and win when it counted.

Go look up Kirk Gibson and the 1988 Dodgers.  Both men inspired their teams with momentous home runs and quickly exited due to injuries.  One team came together (under a brilliant manager) while the other fizzled and shizzled.

There's rarely one reason for anything, and there was certainly more than one reason Team USA has bombed out of the WBC -YET AGAIN.  I, for one, am hoping MLB takes the blows to national and sports pride to heart and commits to winning the next time around.

Thanks anyway for the efforts Team USA.  You'll be back again for the next one, I'm sure. And so will I.

Craig Kimbrel - Stand Up Guy

Hey everybody...

Who watched that hard-to-take loss for the USA against Dominica?

AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH !  What a tough loss.  What a great game, though.  That sure beat any spring training  game of our scrubs against your scrubs. 

We'll get through Puerto Rico tomorrow, and into the Championship Round. I'm very much looking forward to USA vs. Japan. 

But I digress, for those of you who didn't see the game tonight, here's a quick synopsis, my style...

Tied 1-1 through a tough 8 innings, Craig Kimbrel gets the call in the 9th and doesn't hold the lead.  Maybe he couldn't recover himself from the "are-you-kidding-me?" strike the ump granted him on a pitch about 5 feet outside. 

But I digress, his next pitch was solidly bopped into the outfield for a base hit, and we lost the tie.  We then proceeded to lose a game that felt at my house and looked and sounded on TV like it was taking place in October. 

After the game, Kimbrel was enough of a good sport to grant an on-field interview and say, " Everybody did well until I came in." 

To the point, brutal, and said like a man.  Tomorrow he'll be the hero.

Welcome to baseball.

ALL-TIME ALL-STARS Left Field (and a WBC aside)

 Hey everybody,

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...

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.