Japan begins WBC defense with 5-3 win over Brazil

Hold on a minute. Did I just read that right? The Netherlands beat Korea 5-0?!

baseball vs soccer, naturally Japan won.

Let's go Japan ! Three-peat in the making !

Well the first stage is practically over with Japan and Cuba heading over to the second round unless Cuba ***** up and loses against China.

It was tough. Brazil was stronger than I thought.

TigersTokyoDome it's surprising. But, Korea this time does not have any MLB players in its team. Like Japan, they are not as strong as they were last time.

Bet China was upset!!

Ole Ole Ole Nippon Nippon

I'm surprised there were eight people in Brazil who played baseball...

Imagine trying to organize a pick-up game of baseball in Sao Paulo...not many takers.

Japan has blown fro 3-1 to a Brazilian -1...

What's surprising is that, as with the friendly, it took eight innings for Japan to get with the game. Good on them for winning in the end, all the same.

Gotta be honest, though... baseball is simply not a world-wide sport in terms of popularity, and this tournament has almost no meaning.