WBC Action

We're not sure how into it people in the USA are, but as we previously noted Japan is extremely into the World Baseball Classic. We are following along, and are excited about the event.

The first round just started this past week. Defending WBC champion, Team Japan (being referred around here as Samurai Japan), began play by shutting out China, while powerhouse and Olympic champion Korea, beat up on Chinese Taipei.

Yesterday, Japan faced off against Korea. In this game, Japan served serious notice to their arch-rivals -in all things really- but also in baseball. (Korea beat Japan twice in the last Olympics and played them tough in the last WBC, all after Ichiro said that "I will make them see that they won't beat Japan for the next 30 years.") This time around, Team Samurai crushed Team Korea by a score of 14 to 2. Lead-off man (and quote machine) Ichiro got hits and scored runs in his first three at-bats.

(On Sunday, Korea rebounded by drubbing China 14-0, setting up a rematch with Japan on Monday).