By now, I’m sure all you idiots are well aware that Team Japan got hosed by the umps in a game against Team USA yesterday. For those of you who missed it, the Americans claimed Tsuyoshi Nishioka tagged up too early. Replays showed otherwise. Even though preliminary TiVo research by our very own Emaciated led him to conclude, “I don’t think we can trust the replays,” there’s no doubt in my mind that Nishioka’s run was completely legit. The ump screwed up and Team Japan, of whom I am an official supporter (I bought a Team Japan Ichiro! t-shirt) ended up losing.
But that’s all in the past now. There will be other games in this World Baseball Classic and Team Japan will not be robbed again. Team Japan rocks. I saw them play the Mariners last week. I had front row seats, right on top of the Japanese dugout. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, so I paid $12 for a disposable camera, only to find out it didn’t have a flash. Now I realize that very few of you idiots have the intelligence and/or manual dexterity needed to operate a camera, but here’s a little photography tip for you: taking pictures at night, without a flash, and with a bunch of bright lights shining onto the field doesn’t really work all that well. The picture in the upper right of this post is a picture of Munenori Kawasaki leaping over the first base line. It’s quite possibly the shittiest picture I’ve even taken, seen or been told about. But I still like it. It captures one of the many unique aspects of Munenori. Some players make a point to not step on any of the lines on the field, but Munenori goes one step further, bounding over the line the way George Costanza might jump over a pothole. That is just one of the many reasons why Munenori Kawasaki rocks your face.
For those of you not familiar with Team Japan, pretty much everyone on the team wears those silly frat boy necklaces and has highlights or frosted blond hair. Not Munenori. He’s not a pretty boy like Akinori Iwamura or Tsuyoshi Nishioka. No, he’s 71 kilos of goofy-looking baseball excitement. He made a bitchin’ over-the-shoulder catch in yesterday’s game and he’s the only player of Team Japan who actually looks like he’s having any fun. I hope that Team Japan advances to the next round of the WBC so Ichiro!, Munenori and Hirota-san get the opportunity to avenge their loss to the US. And I hope they hit Derek Jeter again. Nothing pleases me more than seeing Derek Jeter get smacked by Japanese balls.
That was a royal hosing. I have *never* seen that call made in a baseball game, and I have seen many a baseball game. As for my TiVo analysis (you cyber stalker, you) ESPN did not have a single camera shot capturing both the catch and the tag up, so they showed a picture-in-picture of the event. Obviously, the accuracy of this method hinges on ESPN synching up the two videos properly. ESPN showed their replay twice. Watching frame-by-frame, in the first replay the runner left the base just as the ball was caught (the resolution was insufficient to be conclusive) Moments later ESPN showed the replay again, but this time the runner clearly left the base after the catch. My conclusion, ESPN doesn’t know how to work their VCR.
A flash wouldn’t have done squat for your photos; the action was too far away for any light from your camera to add to the illumination from the stadium lights.
A flash would have helped for the pictures of the players going into the dugout. The only decent picture I got was of Ichiro! waving to the fans while walking down the dugout steps. I was literally sitting with my feet on top of the Japanese dugout. I too have never seen that call made before. Every so often you’ll see a player or manager ask for the appeal, but such appeals are always ignored. And I wasn’t stalking you, I merely wanted to see how the Primer community would respond to Rick Sutcliffe creaming his pants every time Derek Jeter bunted.
You forgot to note that Jeter was being smacked by Japanese balls from behind. Still, don’t you want to see your home country do well? I shouldn’t have said anything to jinx them… every team I root for has lost in the semifinals or the finals or both in the past couple years. I was fully expecting to see another long ball off Lidge in a clutch situation last night. Too bad he didn’t have that kind of control when the Astros needed it most…
My current favorite Japanese athlete is Shizuka Arakawa, even if she has an unusually large mouth.
How else would Japanese balls be smacking Derek Jeter, if not from behind?
I’m not rooting for the Americans because they’re a bunch of turncoats, pretty boys and dickheads. The only people on the American team worth rooting for are Dontrelle Willis and Mark “i before e, except after c my ass!” Teixeira, and they’re both playing like horseshit.
I don’t know the specifics, but I’m pretty sure “in the face” works for both the literal meaning and the metaphor we have going.
So it is still slightly possible for the US and Japan to advance to the next round, if the US beats Mexico and Japan wins out and scores 7 or more runs against Korea. The WBC uses an asinine tie-breaking system. The 1st tiebreaker is head-to-head results, but this can *never* come into play in a 4 team round-robin where 2 teams move on (except for determining seeds in the next round.) A tiebreaker will only be needed when three teams go 2-1, or three teams go 1-2, and to get those results, the three temas must all be 1-1 against one another. So what do they use for the 2nd tiebreaker? Run differential, you say? No, they use runs allowed (in the games between the 3 tied teams)! So a 1-0 victory is weighted as far better than, say an 18-5 whupping. Nonsensical. The 3rd tiebreak is earned runs allowed, followed by team abtting average. For all intents and purposes, this system is no better (at determining which team played best, presumably the point of looking at peripherals in tiebreakers) than skipping straight away to the 4th tiebreak: a coin flip.
Paper Rock Scissors is the solution to the WBC tiebreak problem. It’s not as completely random as flipping a coin, and it’s far less arbitrary than deciding certain, non-representative stats will decide the advancement of a team.
I would love to see Derek Jeter take Japanese balls in the face. I would even register the domain name derekjeterlovesasianballsinhisface.org and develop a website based entirely upon my love of Japanese balls hitting Derek Jeter in the face.
A tiebreaker between two teams is needed to determine seeding for the next round if the top two teams are tied, so the first tiebreaker criteria theoretically might have been useful.
I am disappointed the US lost. Still, I have to give credit to Mexico for throwing the ball to third base after the sac fly scored US’s only run of the night.
I now see absolutely nothing wrong with the WBC’s tiebreaker system. Team Japan is in the semis, and that’s all that matters. Korea vs. Japan III: The Revenge of Ichiro! will be one for the ages.