Comments on: Puerto Rico ousts two-time champ Japan from the World Baseball Classic, heads to Championship Game

By: jimeejohnson

jimeejohnson — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:22:12 +0000

Japan was the home team in San Francisco. Puerto Rico played very well to win this one.

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:57:14 +0000

Point well taken, but give me that Puerto Rican squad, and their competitive experience over the Japanese 9 anytime.

By: seattlenative57

seattlenative57 — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:38:53 +0000

yawn

By: 13arod

13arod — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:42:47 +0000

rios is starting to cath fire

By: orelmiraculous

orelmiraculous — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:38:04 +0000

“Puerto Rico clearly had the advantage in talent, with guys like Rios, Mike Aviles, Angel Pagan, Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina facing a Japanese lineup with no current major leaguers.”

This statement is just flat-out ignorant. The economic realities of international baseball will almost always dictate that more Puerto Ricans will be in the majors than Japanese players for one simple reason: the economy of Japan is able to support an elite professional league for their own players, the economy of Puerto Rico is not.

To say that Puerto Rico “clearly had the advantage in talent” because they had more major leaguers is a huge failure of reasoning.

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:38:05 +0000

I don’t know. In between the first couple of dream teams and the last version of the US FIBA team, there was a stretch where the US fielded an inferior squad against the rest of the Basketball playing world/

I think they need someone at the top who will both inspire the best talents the US has to offer, as well as squash the grumbling of Major league owners and managers and get the proper talent into undertsanding that the WBC *does* matter. Baseball’s version of Jerry Coangelo and a manager, for instance like a Tony LaRussa, who is a proven commodity.

Put that together and now we’re cooking.

By: mrfloydpink

mrfloydpink — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:11:22 +0000

A victory by Puerto Rico may be as close as the U.S. ever gets to winning this thing…