Teams from sixteen countries started in this three week tournament and seven teams have already been eliminated. UBC/True has shown some interesting games including Cuba vs Australia. Australia had a good chance to knock off the heavily favored Cuban team but were beaten in the late innings by a pinch-hit home run, score was 5-4. In another match, Netherlands beat Dominican Republic for the second time, a huge upset.

Teams eliminated, so far, are China, Taipei, Russia, Canada, Italy, Panama and Dominican Republic.

Teams still in the running are Japan, Korea, Cuba, Australia, Mexico, USA, Venezuela, Netherlands and Puerto Rico. Winner will be crowned on March 23rd.

Full bracket of the teams:
http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/sch ... p?team=wbc

As a long-time baseball fan I'm enjoying watching the WBC (currently the Netherlands and Puerto Rico are playing each other) and wish it continued success. I've always wanted; what we in the USA call the "World Series" to become a more international sporting event. Perhaps this is a start towards that end.

Watching the live Mexico-Australia game on UBC, the loser will be eliminated.

Been a baseball fan most of my life. Can remember running home from school in 1953 so I could watch the last few innings of the subway series between the Yankees and Dodgers. If you're a Yankee fan then you get to see a lot of your team's games here on UBC. My team is the Detroit Tigers and have tried to watch live streaming feeds, including mlb.com, but a waste due to the erratic internet speeds here.

Putting Stanley at short was a genius move to get Kaline's bat in the lineup, Tilokarat. I brought my VHS copy of Game 7, '68 World Series, with me to Thailand. Found a VCR that plays my tapes, albeit in B&W, but that's fine.

The et al should include Norm Cash, Harvey Kuenn, Charlie "Paw Paw" Maxwell, Don Mossi, Ray Narleski, Willie Horton to name a few more.

Denny McLain was also a favorite of a nephew and mine in '68. Took four nephews and my dad to watch McLain win his 31st game that year. Watched him shout in and groove a pitch to the great Mickey Mantle in his last Tiger Stadium appearance. Ball was promptly placed into the upper rightfield stands. Joe Pepitone was next batter and showed McLain where he wanted the pitch. McLain promptly put him on his arse.
Nephews still talk about that game, forty years later.

Mexico won the WBC showdown with Australia today, 16-1, so Mexico moves on to the next round.

polehawk wrote:Watching the live Mexico-Australia game on UBC, the loser will be eliminated.

Been a baseball fan most of my life. Can remember running home from school in 1953 so I could watch the last few innings of the subway series between the Yankees and Dodgers. If you're a Yankee fan then you get to see a lot of your team's games here on UBC. My team is the Detroit Tigers and have tried to watch live streaming feeds, including mlb.com, but a waste due to the erratic internet speeds here.

PH... Do you have fantasy baseball leagues? I need to change sports... Let's face it I can't do any worse than football.

P.S. You can get a baseball BAT in Sportsworld and Centrepoint.

IA, I am a fantasy sports addict, it's true. I will be getting into at least four baseball leagues. Presently, I'm in two hockey and two basketball leagues. Will get into at least four American football leagues in the fall. Have tried NASCAR league and knew nothing about that sport. And, of course, got into the UdonMap football league and, again, knew next to nothing about the game but have learned from you lot (see?). It's been fun and watch some matches now but have to admit that I still haven't watched a NASCAR race yet from start to finish line.

Thanks for the tip on where to buy a baseball bat.

Tilo, fantasy baseball is fantastic fun but a long six month season so some do lose interest after a few months. In general, if you enjoy looking at stats and researching probabilities then you should do well with the fantasy sports.

With 11,000 members in this forum you would think you could get 10 or 12 members interested in signing up for a baseball league, eh? Yahoo is a favorite because the leagues are easy to set up and follow. Also takes very low maintenance to be competitive.

Japan 5-3 over Korea in the Final. Great game to watch with Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle Mariners) coming through in the clutch in top of 10th inning with a solid hit up the middle to bring in two runs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston Red Sox) was named MVP. Not many recognizable names in the Japan and Korean lineups but many excellent players with the two best teams playing in the final. Sadaharu Oh, the world's alltime home run champion, made the Championship trophy presentation.