Baseball To The Rescue » Brats & Beer

March 2, 2006
posted under: World Baseball Classic

There has been a void in my life since the Olympics ended, but finally I have a reason to get up in the wee hours to watch sports from the other side of the globe. Okay, sarcasm aside, I am pretty excited about the World Baseball Classic, which starts tonight (or tomorrow morning, depending on your location) with the first round of games in the Asia bracket. ESPN is broadcasting the games live from Tokyo as Korea starts against Taiwan and Japan takes on China. I’m mostly interested to see the Japanese fans because they go nuts for their baseball, with organized cheering sections complete with brass bands, drum lines, and lots of flag waving. The Japanese are pretty convinced that their ball players are the best in the world (as I suppose we are about ours), so we’ll see what they can put together in this worldwide tournament.

By the way, three Brewers players are taking part in the tourney, but none for the US team. Jorge De La Rosa is playing for Mexico, Corey Koskie made the Canadian team roster, and Carlos Lee will take the field for Panama. The rest of the Brew Crew will be playing in their first exhibition game of spring training today against the Giants.