Damn, the translated quotes still crack me up after even after many years…another good one was one interveiwed fan’s comments translated as “this victory really gave me a warm heart towards baseball, it’s a game of fighting spirit and joyful emotions”

“God descends on Ichiro! World two-peat for Samurai!,” the Tokyo Chunichi Sports daily cried as the baseball-crazy nation went into party mode.

While the country is gripped by recession and political turmoil, the winning campaign was estimated by one economist to have generated 50.6 billion yen (516 million dollars) worth of economic spin-offs at home.

These include merchandise sales, television rights and tourism.

“Asian baseball may be increasingly reconsidered as the birthplace of baseball,” economic daily Nikkei said in an editorial. “The United States, said to be not serious about the event, may feel agitated.”

[20] great shout out, Chyll. Hope you can see a game here one day, the atmosphere is amazing.

Other countries stopped for the WBC the way America used to stop for the World Series. In Cuba, workers were allowed to show up late for their jobs the morning after late-night games in Mexico. In Korea, fans filled three different ballparks to watch the final on giant screens, with the people filing in as early as 9 a.m. for the 10:30 a.m. first pitch, local time. In Japan, people stood by the hundreds, five and six deep, around the display windows of electronics stores in Tokyo, catching WBC games of their beloved Samurai Japan on flat-screen display sets. When Japan played Korea in the first of their five games this WBC, it drew a 37.8 rating in Japan, better than the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the highest recorded sports event there since … well, since the last WBC.

The interest was not confined to the Pacific Rim. The 39 WBC games drew an average of 20,549 fans per game — making the WBC, on average, a better draw than three major league franchises: the Royals, Pirates and Marlins. The WBC drew seven crowds in excess of 40,000 — more than the Marlins, Nationals, Royals, Indians, White Sox and Athletics combined in 486 games last year.

ESPN ratings for the WBC shot up 53 percent entering the final round. Fifty-six corporations signed on as WBC sponsors, more than double the involvement in 2006.

Indeed, both are equally silly and fabricated…or rather, the Olympic rules are even more absurd given that the modern Olympics were created specifically within a framework of 19th century nationalism.

I don’t care if they were playing for the WBC cup or just a cup of coffee…the stakes are really irrelevant.

Interesting. So then, a crisply played spring training game–for you–would be just as compelling, provided that you got the sense the players were giving it their all?

Again, I think you are using exaggerations to ridicule the qualification criteria (which really aren’t much different than the Olympics). Citizenship and recent direct lineage to a country seem like very fair ways to determine eligibility, and certainly do not strike me as trivial or silly. Besides, the only team that really “benefits” from the rule is Italy, so it’s kind of a red herring anyway.

Finally, and I am really not trying to insist that you care about the WBC, but I don’t see why one needs to “recognize” the prize as legitimate. The bottom line for me is two world class baseball teams played a game giving 110% percent. I don’t care if they were playing for the WBC cup or just a cup of coffee…the stakes are really irrelevant. The WBC is merely the vehicle that provided the opportunity to watch a great baseball game played by great players giving an all out effort…even if it was played on a Sandlot, I would relish the opportunity to watch…and am very surprised that other baseball fans wouldn’t feel the same way.

oh well, more tickets for me.

that was the most fun, exciting and compelling game i’ve ever had the pleasure to attend, it was simply my pleasure to spend that time in the company of those great baseball fans.

“DAE HAN MIN GUK!”

I said “as it is currently constructed.” I would ditch the european teams and make it an “Asia v. Latin America” tournament. I would also not pressure MLB players to compete, which would liberate the scheduling.

Why can’t Hairston be proud to be play for Team USA or Team Mexico?

He certainly can be proud of both. But the rules for participation sure strike me as awfully fabricated: one grandparent? Why stop there? I’m a bit of an Italianophile, and I certainly root for Italian teams when the mood strikes me. Why shouldn’t I be able to play for the Italian team? I live now in Canada though a US citizen–should I play for Canada?

By organizing the tournament on national lines, the organizers have emphasized the connection that players have to a specific nation. Yet they know they can’t possibly fill lineups with “real” citizens of the various competing nations, so they conjure up these loose rules. If you don’t see the silliness in the silliness and fabricated nature of the roster rules–borne of necessity, no doubt–well then we will just have to agree to disagree.

Do you not think the Japanese and Korean players were playing at a high level?

I will admit, however, that the WBC was more viscerally compelling than other exhibitions, such as the All Star Game or Spring Training.

I don’t think I side stepped the point in [22]. One of the nice things about being an American, IMHO, is that you don’t have to forfeit pride in your ethnic origins in order to be a proud of American. Why can’t Hairston be proud to be play for Team USA or Team Mexico? Does he really have to choose sides when elements of both elicit pride? And, what was so silly about the European rosters? The Netherlands had mostly players from that country (or its possesions), and even Italy had a good amount of players from the Italian league (and for those Italian American players, I see nothing silly in taking pride in playing for the country of their recent ancestors).

As to your last point, considering that the WBC seems to have been immensely popular in Asia and Latin America, I don’t see a reason for why it isn’t an ideal venue for promoting the game to these markets (and to the immigrant populations in the U.S.).

That’s not what I wrote and you know that. My point is that the players’ enthusiasm does not much influence my own enthusiasm; that the Korean and Japanese players fought tooth and nail–pride in their countries and all that–does not make the game more compelling for me.

his mom was Mexican by birth,

You sort of sidestep Mattpat’s larger point (albeit one made sarcastically): Hairston is not playing for his nation, but rather the nation of birth of one of his parents. Maybe he takes pride in that, maybe not, maybe it was just easier for him to find a roster spot on the Mexican rather than American team. But in any case, he wasn’t playing for his nation. This one example points to the fabricated nature of the tournament, wherein very liberal rules for national connection had to be conjured up in order to fill up the rosters of some teams. The european rosters were, in my opinion, sort of silly.

if I was MLB, I would be much more focused on Asia and Latin America, countries likely to experience local population growth as well as increase immigration to the United States.

I agree entirely. I wonder if the WBC is the best venue for promoting this enthusiasm, at least as it is currently constructed.

[17] I agree with your assessment, but quite frankly, if I was MLB, I would be much more focused on Asia and Latin America, countries likely to experience local population growth as well as increase immigration to the United States. I always laugh when people lament the MLB demographic because they always ignore that MLB is very popular among Asians and Hispanics. If I was looking for long-term growth in the United States, those would be the populations to which I’d pay most attention.

I also disagree that MLB will not be fully committed for a long time. If a real revenue opportunity exists, MLB will fall in line. The jury is out on how much MLB can expand its international markets, but the WBC is definitely a step in the right direction.

[18] I don’t think the passion of the Korean and Japanese players was fabricated by Bud Selig. Regardless of the format, that game last night was a well played, passionate game between rival teams who desperately wanted to win. If one wants to dismiss it and compare it to the local VFW, so be it. As a baseball fanatic, however, I found it extremely compelling and can’t imagine someone of a similar mindset not being interested in the game.

[19] When was Jerry Hairston billed as a Mexican national hero? I believe his mom was Mexican by birth, so I am not sure why it would be so funny that he would have pride in representing the homeland of his mother.

Anyway… I agree with Monkeypants, but after reading what I was originally going to post, I realized that I’m reading far too much into the political aspects of the game as opposed to it just being a baseball tournament. Perhaps the structure of the tournament being based on national origin (like the Olympics, but with far less at stake) is what keeps me from getting fully engaged, especially when I consider my personal stake in US history, and if I were to travel beyond my US origins, I’m not even represented in the games, so why bother?

That’s just me, but I do think Bud and MLB are trying to gloss over some deeper issues and present this as a great exhibition; but without anything more than national pride at stake, I’m not that interested. Great game between two countries I otherwise have no emotional or other strong bonds to (outside of OK Jazz >;), like watching Texas Rangers vs. Houston Astros…

Since I do not recognize Bud Selig’s fabricated “Classic” as the championship of the world

Bingo.

Well, that and I just can’t get passed “Jerry Hairston, Mexican national hero”

I can’t imagine being a baseball fan (forget the general public) and not embracing a game like last tonight’s.

For me, a game has to mean something for it to be compelling. Since I do not recognize Bud Selig’s fabricated “Classic” as the championship of the world, I have a hard time getting excited about the game. It doesn’t matter to me as much that the players find the game compelling: I am sure the local VFW league players are trying very hard and it means a lot to them, but I am not going to arrange my schedule around their games. I am sure the Korean players were, as you say, very sad, just as the Japanese players were no doubt jubilant. I, personally, still don’t care much at all, outside of my ongoing hope that various Yankees did not injure themselves.

I agree. My point is that we cannot know for a long time if this effort is successful, because its goals are themselves long term.

I do, however, stand by my assessment that international baseball in Europe is far, far, far, far, far behind where basketball was even in the 1970s.

so MLB has to be fully committed…

I agree again. But MLB will never be so committed, or at least not for a very, very long time.

[8] Sorry to abandon you, but I was glued to the TV for the entire 10 innings. The game was as compelling and well played as any MLB game… I can’t imagine being a baseball fan (forget the general public) and not embracing a game like last tonight’s. When it was over, I looked at the Korean bench and could sense they were already counting down the days until 2013.