Japan won the World Baseball Classic last night. I wish I could have seen it live, but it didn't start until 2am and there was no way I could stay up for it.
I didn't get to see much of the final few games as I was traveling. It looked like the crowds in San Diego were pretty good, which I suppose will encourage baseball's authorities to do this again. Well, maybe that's a good thing although I'm still not sold. The tournament didn't seem to have captured the attention of baseball fans I met last week in New York, but it seems the Japanese were glued to it.
The failure of the US team was hardly unexpected. They weren't ready to play physically, but maybe more importantly, they didn't really seem to care as much as the players on the other teams. The Cubans, Japanese and Koreans all seemed to play with real fire, as if they had something to prove. (I think if I had my choice I'd have liked to have seen Korea win, but they lost to Japan in the semi-finals and that's the way sports goes.)
