Results tagged “worldbaseballclassic”

While the Wold Baseball Classic might be off the radar of most casual sports fans, the American team is still doing their part to provide a little drama along the way to advancing to the semifinals for the first time. The US was one inning away from its second loss to Puerto Rico, when the Mets' David Wright came through with a two-run single to cap a three-run come from behind rally in the 9th last night. Wright called it the biggest hit of his career and said, "That situation is what you dream about when you're a kid." After last night's redemptive win over Puerto Rico (the previous game between the two teams was called on account of the tournament's mercy rule with PR up 11-1), the US team now goes out to Los Angeles for the round of four. Wright got an extra kick out of sending home his Met teammates Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, who both drove in runs for Puerto Rico in the losing effort. Wright said, "I'm going to tell them to enjoy St. Lucie."

Let's step away from some of the more popular sports for a second. Move aside basketball and your NCAA Tournament. Take a chill pill baseball with your World Baseball Classic and Spring Training. Yesterday the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum hosted the Big Apple Grapple, which featuring the some of the world's best male and female arm wrestlers. All battling for NYC's King and Queen of Arms. Unfortunately, there are no results online for this scintillating display of strength.

When Japan advanced to play Cuba in the finals of the World Baseball Classic, the matchup was not what Major League Baseball commissioner had envisioned or set up the tournament to produce. On Monday, Japan won the game 10-6 and the first championship of the World Baseball Classic. As they celebrated, Gothamist was left to wonder whether the tournament can become a fixture in the United States.

Gothamist has seen Al Leiter play on many occasions. The worst performance that we might have witnessed though was when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at a performance at Shea Stadium. It was fitting then that before his final appearance on the pitcher's mound he warmed up to a song by The Boss. At Legends Field in Tampa yesterday, Leiter called it a career after 22 seasons in the Majors. Leiter started his career with the Yankees before playing parts of seven seasons with the Blue Jays and two seasons with the Marlins. After a championship season with Florida in 1997, including a no-hitter for the team, Leiter returned to New York for a stint with the Mets. While with the Mets, Leiter had 10-plus wins for each of his seven seasons, with his best year in 1997 as he was 17-6, had a 2.47 ERA and 174 strikeouts. Last season was less than memorable as he started it with the Marlins before being traded back to the Yankees.

Say it ain't so! The United States has been eliminated from the World Baseball Classic. Great news for George Steinbrenner, bad news for US baseball. Last night in Anaheim (or Los Angeles as the Angels would have you call it), Mexico defeated the US, 2-1. In the loss, the US team only managed three hits off 8 Mexican pitchers. If you're scoring at home, that's a single by Junior Griffey, a double by Chipper Jones and another double by Jeff Francoeur. The loss put the United states at 1-2 in 2nd round play and in a three-way tie with Mexico and Japan. But the same International Baseball Federation rules that put the US into the 2nd round, sent Japan to the semi-finals where they will play South Korea. Cuba will play the Dominican Republic in the other semi-final matchup.

In what is becoming a slightly disturbing trend, the United States lost again in the World Baseball Classic. First, they lost to Canada, yesterday, the Americans lost to South Korea, 7-3. South Korea, who is 2-0 in the 2nd round and is unbeaten in the WBC, slugged their way to victory. Hee-Seop Choi teed off for a three-run homer in the 4th inning off of Astros pitcher Dan Wheeler, giving the Koreans a 6-1 lead. South Korea added another run in the 6th and the United States mounted a feeble attempt at a comeback in the 9th.

Gothamist has watched tons of baseball games and every so often after a player tags-up, you see an appeal to the umpires. We've never actually seen that appeal work. In yesterday's World Baseball Classic game between the United States and Japan, it did. In the 8th inning with bases loaded, Akinori Iwamura hit a fly ball to left off Joe Nathan. Tsuyoshi Nishioka tagged up from third and easily beat an off-line throw from Randy Wynn to the plate. After the Nishioka apparently scored, the US appealed at 3rd, with the 2nd base umpire denying the appeal. Buck Martinez, the US manager came out and appealed to home plate umpire Bob Davidson who called Nishioka out after a conference. While replay wasn't an option for the play, it showed that Nishioka was clearly still at 3rd when Wynn caught the ball.

In a stunner, the United States actually lost a game in pool play during the World Baseball Classic. Yesterday, they lost to their friendly neighbors to the north, 8-6. If you're thinking to yourselves, "Canada? Who the hell do they have?" Gothamist can say that we're right there with you. The "big" names on Team Canada include: Erik Bedard, Paul Quantrill, Chris Reitsma, Corey Koskie, Jason Bay, and Matt Stairs. Canada all but conceded the game when they shuffled their starting rotation, so the win is even bigger a shock. But with the WBC essentially an extremely competitive Spring Training, anything can happen.

Over in Arizona yesterday, the United States won their first game in the World Baseball Classic, defeating Mexico 2-0. Jake Peavey, the starter for the United States, pitched only three innings, allowing 1 hit on only 23 pitches. He was pulled despite pitch counts allowing as many as 65 in the first round. Mike Timlin picked up the victory for the Americans, who struggled mightly against Rodrigo Lopez and four other Mexican pitchers.

Yesterday, Billy Wagner, the new Mets closer announced that he was dropping out of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. CC Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians is also stepping aside, which is potentially a bigger problem for the United States than Wagner not playing. The US team now only has 3 starting pitchers - Jake Peavy, Dontrelle Willis and Roger Clemens - potentially a problem considering all the rules on the books. Lucky for the United States, they only have three games in pool play.

Spring is almost here! Pitchers and catchers started reporting to camps in Florida today. In Port St. Lucie the Mets are welcoming new faces Billy Wagner, Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca, as well as several others. In Tampa, the Yankees have several new pitchers, Kyle Farnsworth, Octavio Dotel, Mike Myers and Ron Villone joining their staff.

Now that they've got all this cleared up, we're ready for some world baseball action! Too bad it doesn't start until March 3rd.

Major League Baseball announced the 60-man US World Baseball Classic roster yesterday with several players on the Mets and Yankees named as possible team members. The US list includes Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Al Leiter, and Alex Rodriguez. The Mets have Paul Lo Duca, Billy Wagner and David Wright on the US players listed. While the 60-person list is a list of players that can play in the tournament, the eventual roster must be trimmed to 30 players the day before tournament play.