I don’t know what the players on most of the World Baseball Classic teams were thinking during the tournament, but the players on Team Italy really wanted to win. The WBC wasn’t spring training for most of them, like it was for the United States. I’m not suggesting the Americans did not try as hard as everyone else, but each of Team U.S.’s players knew he had a great job to go back to when the WBC was over. Some of the players on the Italian roster, by contrast, were auditioning for big-league or even minor league jobs.
One of the purposes of the WBC is to generate interest in baseball in other countries where the game is not as popular in the hopes of developing young athletes into major league ballplayers. The biggest success stories in this regard were the victories by the Italians and the Dutch. While Italy stunned (and eliminated) Canada in their first round matchup, the Netherlands shocked the entire baseball world by beating the Dominican Republic not once but twice, and nearly beating Puerto Rico as well. The Dominicans clearly did not play their best baseball, but the Dutch deserve a lot of credit. Even after falling behind in the top of the 11th inning of their elimination game, the Netherlands came back to score two runs in the bottom of the 11th to move on to Round 2 of the WBC.
As I mentioned in my last post, for the World Baseball Classic to be everything it should be each team’s roster must include the best players from that country. What I’d like to add is that each team’s manager must treat the WBC like the postseason and do everything it takes to be the last team standing. Unfortunately, Davey Johnson was more concerned with making all of his players happy. ESPN’s Jim Caple hit the nail on the head with Mistakes made, starting with Johnson. While it cannot be said with any certainty that another manager would have led the United States to victory over Team Japan in the semifinals, Davey Johnson’s inexplicable decisions may have cost his team a trip to the WBC championship game against Korea.
One suggestion I have for the next WBC would be to fix the schedule such that teams that reach the later rounds must face more than just a few opponents. Team Japan played just four other countries – China, Korea, Cuba, and the United States – en route to their 2nd straight WBC title. In particular, it seems excessive that in such a short tournament Japan and Korea played each other five times. That’s more than half of the nine total games each played in the entire WBC.
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As fun as the WBC was, I’m ready for the regular season to begin. My favorite opening day quote belongs to Jim Leyland from his time managing days with the Pirates: “I knew I was in for a long year when we lined up for the national anthem on opening day and one of my players said, 'Every time I hear that song I have a bad game.'"
Is Schilling bound for Cooperstown?
Forty-two-year-old Curt Schilling announced his retirement Monday and as expected, there has been much debate about whether or not he belongs in the Hall of Fame. With no Cy Young award on his resume (though he came in second three times) and only 216 career wins – a far cry from the “magic number” of 300 – to go with a solid but unspectacular 3.46 E.R.A., Schilling is far from a shoe-in.
I’m not sure which side I fall on, but wherever you stand, you cannot deny that Schilling was one of the best big-game pitchers – if not the very best – of the last 20 years. Some might argue that Jack Morris’s performance in the 1991 World Series – particularly in Game 7 – make him the best of the best, but with all due respect to Morris, the 1991 Braves lineup that he shut out for 10 innings in Game 7 (a tremendous feat in and of itself) did not include the same caliber of slugger as the Yankee teams Schilling faced time after time, beginning with the 2001 Fall Classic. In case you forgot, Schilling started Games 1, 4 and 7 for the Diamondbacks and was named co-MVP of the series, sharing the honor with teammate Randy Johnson.
There does not seem to be any precedent for a pitcher with Schilling’s numbers to be elected to the Hall, as Bert Blyleven (287 wins, 3.31 E.R.A. – both significantly better) and David Cone (194 wins, 3.46 E.R.A., one Cy Young award and a perfect game) are still on the outside looking in, and Orel Hershiser (204 wins, 3.48 E.R.A., one Cy Young award) did not receive enough votes in 2007 to remain eligible for consideration. Schilling will have to hope the voters put a lot of emphasis on postseason stats; otherwise, he’ll forever be remembered as a very good pitcher, a Yankee killer, and above all, the guy who wore the bloody sock.
Keywords: Bert Blyleven, bloody sock, Curt Schilling, Davey Johnson, David Cone, Hall of Fame, Italy, Jack Morris, Japan, Jim Leyland, Korea, Netherlands, Orel Hershiser, United States, World Baseball Classic
