thorgrimfile comments

"including 110 Kinki area riot police"

Do Japanese police departments have dedicated "riot police"? Meaning, all they do is train and prepare to beat down protesters, rabid sports fans, etc.?

That's the human condition, folks. Just goes to show, there's plenty of messed up parent-child relationships out there in the world. Killing your mom over the remote though, that's pretty sad.

Seems like Japan, and plenty of other countries, need some kind of special homes for disgruntled, anti-social, middle-aged men. Where they can zone out on TV, thumb through well-worn tentacle mangas (or whatever fits the bill in said loser's nation of residence), surf for pron, and drink cheap rot-gut all day, and leave all the rest of us alone!

90 minutes of running around for nothing. Game settled on a free kick = boring.

"will japan ever win 1st place in the baseball world cup?NOPE. How bout this year? NO! pretty pathetic since baseball world cup has been around about 40 years."

Huh? There's a baseball world cup (must be up there with the curling world cup in terms of international prestige!)? Who the heck plays in that, high school kids? And you guarantee Japan wont win it this year, whatever it is? Whoop-di-do...

Japan cared. Korea cared. Cuba cared. The Netherlands cared. I'm sure some of the other Latin American teams cared. If the US doesn't care, well they can just sit the hell out of the next WBC, and we won't have to hear about how the WBC is "just and exhibition" and other assorted whining. The USA is not the center of the sporting universe, and apparently not even the center of the baseball universe anymore.

Hey, what did I say about you J and K fanboys? Lay off! 5-3 Game over!

Tonight, Japan won fair and square (or as fair and square as any major sports event can be), but Korea also manned up and played tough! It wasn't no wipe out, but a hard fought game, which everyone but you psycho-partisans enjoyed!

BTW, there will be no more Olympics baseball, that's done with - Asians and a handful of of "Americans" (by that, I mean people who live on both continents) may care about it, but the rest of the world thinks it's stupid (of course, I disagree, can't imagine anything more goofy than soccer, but I'm sure I'll receive a ton of hate for that comment - but of course those people shouldn't even be reading a post about baseball anyway :P).

Amen, Beowulf!

I think the supposed 'bad calls' have been over-analyzed. Both teams had them go their way at times. That's just the way sports are - at least the game didn't come down to some stupid penalty kick on a blown call (OK, you can tell I'm not a soccer/football fan).

Bad sportsmanship? Wow, since when is that a cause for banning from an entire tournament? Jojima left his bat on home plate, big deal - not a cool move to be sure, but was it worse than that American pitcher who threw at/behind the head of the Dutch player who paused a fraction of a second too long when admiring his homer a week ago? THAT could've killed someone, but he wasn't even kicked out of the game! But that kind of thing is just what you get in any intense sporting event.

As far as the "turning their backs" thing by the Koreans after the game, I've been watching highlights all night (on J-media to boot), and haven't seen that yet. Sounds like there's been some misinterpretation going on? Perhaps some of you K-haters better link to You-tube if you're so sure of that...

As for dirty play? Pretty much the same as I said about bad sportsmanship. Sliding cleats first at the guy at second to try to disrupt a double play is a nasty move. It would earn you tons of hate if you did it during an "exhibition" like an All-Star game. But what is this WBC? Is it a just-for-fun exhibition, or is it 'serious'? If it's serious, expect that kind of crap. Especially between two teams who obviously hate each others' guts. I just can't believe there weren't a ton of bean-balls (intentionally hitting the batter) in this game...

So, all you J or K fanboys (and you know who you are), time to knock off your obviously biased rantings, and let the rest of us alone to savor an amazing final to a flawed but still enjoyable WBC. Asian baseball rocks, what more needs to be said?

Damn good final.

For most of the game, Japan hit well, except for when it counted, and then the Koreans played some excellent "D". Iwakuma pitched superbly, until he got tired in the 8th (with the pitch limits and spring training mentality, did any other starting pitcher in this entire tournament ever make it that far?). Ichiro, whatever you say about him (over-rated, arrogant, bigoted, etc., all of which may be true), had a great game tonight.

Still don't know why Hara loved the bunt so much - I mean, 'small ball' yeah, but ordering a bunt with Ichiro on 2nd and no outs? Huh?

Anyway, I've been seeing scuttlebutt on the 'blogosphere' criticizing Korea's manager for NOT ordering an intentional walk to Ichiro in the 10th when first base was open. Speculation (of course) was that he hated Ichiro so much that he couldn't 'lose face' by intentionally walking an obviously hot Ichiro (http://eastwindupchronicle.com/how-korean-nationalism-cost-it-the-wbc-crown/).

Well, seems we know Korea and Japan are tops in baseball, if not in terms of shear talent (although I think they have plenty), at least in terms of desire and spirit. You know, the WBC doesn't have to be about the US. Heck, since "they"(the players/fans/pro-club managers/etc.) don't seem to care, maybe they should just skip the next WBC next time.

Didn't get to watch the end of the game, so I didn't witness the supposed bad sportsmanship of the Korean team (until I see proof, I'll put it up there with Ichiro's supposed using of the Korean flag as bumwad, etc.). But in my opinion, I hope there's still some bad blood between those teams, as it makes for a good rivalry and good speculation. I mean, is the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry built on mutual respect and appreciation? Heck no, it's built on total hatred and disrespect! Gotta love sports!

So, way to go Japan! And Korea too! as without them, it wouldn't have been half as exciting and interesting.

I don't remember if there was a 3rd place game in the last WBC either, although I do remember there being some weird run-based, tie-breaking advancement system, as opposed to the not-all-that-much-better double elimination format this time around. Maybe they used it to determine the third best team.

But there's no 3rd place game on the schedule at the WBC web site.

I don't believe there's going to be a third place game, so we won't be seeing Japan vs. Venezuela, at least not for another 4 years.

Today's game was OK, but I don't think either team played with utmost seriousness. At least it seemed that way as they both rotated multiple pitchers in and out, usually for no good reason (to give them some throws/practice, I suspect), or so it seemed to me.

I don't need to see another Japan/Korea game. At least the next two match-ups should be new and interesting. Anyhow, if I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Venezuela to win it all.

@smithinjapan: Yeah, I certainly get your point about variety - and that's something that needs to be fixed before the next WBC - but I would argue that 2 games vs Cuba is a lot more informative than one game against Mexico.

As far as the WBC continuing? Well, I'm sure it will, even if the the sponsors and main organizers, the MLB, continues to be extremely ambivalent on an individual club level. Too much has already been invested (enough to kill off Olympic baseball at least).

Just because the US team doesn't give enough of a s**t to take it seriously doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other countries that don't enjoy the opportunity. You can't say that Japan and Korea don't take it seriously. And now that without the Olympics, that Cuba (especially after having something to prove after this historic early tournament exit) wont want it to continue either (what other venue will they have to prove themselves?).

Don't mistake US apathy and ill preparation (and bogus "spring-training" coaching decisions) for the attitude of other countries in the tournament. I'm sure if Venezuela wins the whole enchilada (do they eat them there?), they'll be psyched, and good ol'e Hugo will be cheering the superiority of 'his' ballplayers over those of the diabolic Yankies! See, we don't even need Cuba still in it to have political overtones (come on, admit it, that's what makes these tournaments great, just like the Miracle on Ice, etc.).

So in that regard, it'll be a success. Sure, the rules are still screwy, and people in America aren't giving a damn. But as long as the rest of the participants do, it'll still be serving the whole purpose of spreading baseball. Heck, I bet certain Dutch people (OK, probably not 'regular' Dutch people, but perhaps islander types) will be all up for WBC 2013...

""For those who criticize the tournament's format-i.e. the many times Korea and Japan have to play-I see a positive in it, namely, that we have a large enough sampling to see who has the better team, and thus far it has been Korea."

You know... I was actually JUST going to say that exact same thing. I do have to be honest and say it's tedious, but given that some of us have been complaining it's not a round-robin format and/or a true test of how the two teams (in particular with relation to these two) match up against each other, this is an ideal test."

Yes, but the WBC 'should' be about which team is best against a variety of opponents. Korea certainly seems to have the edge against Japan (not always though, as that first 14-2 game shows), and I'm sure their regional/historical rivalry has a lot to do with Korea's motivation (do they plant the flag after every game, or only when they beat Japan?). But otherwise, Korea has only played Taiwan, China, and Mexico - not exactly a broad sampling of international talent.

So tomorrow's game should be good, but perhaps not so interesting (been there, done that X3). Korea's future match-up against Venezuela, or as seems more likely the USA, should will finally show us what they can do against top MLB talent. But hopefully they'll have a better system in place for 2013, and maybe a plan host the final rounds in a different place, seeing as how folks in the US don't seem to give a **** (I don't think you can blame less than 10K attendance on the late hour and a bad economy).

What would be the difficulty of going all Kana? The Koreans seemed to have ditched Chinese characters quite successfully, why couldn't the Japanese do the same?

Watching a special on Rawanda at the moment. Seems like some forceful action could have saved a lot of people. But no, no, War can NEVER BE JUSTIFIED!

Yes, indeed!, the international community deserves a hearty clap on the back for Rawanda, for peacefully standing by and allowing a million people to be murdered :P Bah!

PS - for the really dense, yes, I'm being sarcastic.

Heck, he was shaky plenty of times before the Olympics, so no great loss there IMO. Maybe if they need another "reliable" closer, they can ask Kubota :P

Pulp Fiction. Yeah, it certainly dates me, but it's a great movie. Watch it. Then all those "Royal with Cheese" type comments will not go right over your head (ANOTSUSAGAMI et al, at least I appreciated your humor).

Personally, I think the "yon-bun no ichi paunda" sound better...