March 17, 2006
Deflated Team
The US team took the loss hard last night. That's good. That means they care about the tournament. You can see that in these quotes:
Which feeling will he and the club carry away with them now that it's over?
"In the end, it was fun. I would recommend it to anyone that has the opportunity next time it comes around. It was a fun experience, right up until tonight," said Jeter, finally managing a smile.
Vernon Wells, who's been rah-rah about this thing from the beginning, agreed. "We're disappointed, but we can't really hang our head too much," he said. "This tournament shows you how good baseball is around the world. It's been fun to be a part of. It's fun to see the different countries and how they play the game, and the different flair they bring to it, and all the fun they have. Unfortunately, they had a little too much fun tonight."
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Posted by David Pinto at
09:27 AM
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World Cup
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Classy comments from Wells. I've appreciated the respect that the players from most of the teams have had for each other, and for the quality of international competition.
Vernon Wells was so rah-rah about the tournament that he swung at the very first pitch he saw with the game on the line in the 9th inning. Good job there.
I hate that Benjamin. First pitch swinging at a new reliever? Aaauuugggh! Maybe he's nervous and throws a wild pitch. And earlier in the game there was a two pitch, two out inning for the Mexicans, that was a nice gift to them.
To me, it seems most of the teams were playing as teams, and not a collection of great players -- that was how the US looked to me.
Is there any math behind this? Or are you guys just guessing that, in general, it's a bad idea to swing at the first pitch from a new reliever? Or a bad idea to swing at the first pitch you see in a close game in the 9th? Would be interesting to know if there's something to this, or if it's sort of like Jeter's "clutch" hitting.
Mike: You're on to something there. As a former high school player, the accepted wisdom was that it was never a great idea to swing at the first pitch from a new pitching especially if it's a pitcher you've never seen before as I believe was the case with Wells last night.
You would have to determine new match-ups, pitch counts, situations, etc., to develop a rigorous analysis there.
There are stats on clutch hitting, though certain people
prefer to ignore the whole thing--heroes are painful to them. RISP, late inning close
situations, & you can look up logs of games & find out
who did what. The WBC & the US team were put
together to sell a product. Winning was secondary.
The other countries weren't put together like that. We'll
see if Orza & the rest want everything controlled by
WADA in the future. By saying you're global, certain
people in the US hierarchy will become
superfluous.
Here's something to ponder..
Why Buck Martinez? Why not Davey Johnson? I think that Johnson would've been a better pick that Buck to lead Team USA.
