baseball's march madness

The 1980 Miracle on Ice, Appalachian State beats the University of Michigan, The New York Giants win Super Bowl XLII, now the Netherlands is moving on to the second round of the World Baseball Classic. After beating the Dominican Republic for the second time in pool play, the Sidney Ponson led dutch ball club are still alive.

The WBC has been waiting for a story like this since its inception in 2006. The Netherlands have suddenly brought a little bit of March Madness to Baseball's international tournament. A group of wily veterans like Sir Sidney and Eugene Kingsale and young A ball players like LA Dodgers catcher Kenley Jansen and Seattle Mariners outfielder Greg Halman have shocked the baseball world by downing a Dominican Republic team making nearly $83 million more dollars in the major leagues in 2008 than their dutch counterparts. That didn't stop the dutch team sporting only one major leaguer, Florida pitcher Rick Vandenhurk.

In the team's first meeting the Netherlands won what was widely considered a fluke in a 3-2 victory in the tournament's opening game. It was a brilliantly pitched game by Ponson and dutch professional Rob Cordemans, who together held the vaunted Dominican lineup to only two runs. Then Tuesday night it all came crashing down around the favored Dominican team as reliever Leon Boyd and Washington Nationals second basemen Yurendell DeCaster, who last played in the major leagues in 2006, led the dutch to an unexpected victory.

This is exactly the kind of buzz that can bring the World Baseball Classic to the sports strata it aspires to be. Baseball people had hoped when the WBC began that it would bring the kind of global involvement to baseball that the World Cup brings to football. It is victories and stories like this that can make those ambitions a reality.

We will see how long the Netherlands can wear the glass slipper when the take on Venezuela tomorrow at 1 PM. Maybe the the World Baseball Classic has finally found its Cinderella. But dutch pitching coach and major league legend Bert Blyleven likens it to a different classic tale, "Now we look at this round, and hopefully, the same David-and-Goliath theory will continue, and good things will happen for us."

lasorda wants you (to support usa baseball)

Being an underdog and making it as far as they can is fine for the United States in one world sport tournament. For Tommy Lasorda, the World Baseball Classic is not that tournament. The United States always surprises in the World Cup and continues to improve to the point where they can contend every four years. Lasorda, though, maintains that the World Baseball Classic should be won every three years by the American team.

Lasorda, quoted by AP, lets the American public that they have a duty when it comes to the World Baseball Classic, "Remember one thing: In your hearts, you better pull for the USA or you may not get into heaven."

Even though at the Summer Olympics, which is the only other international baseball tournament, the United States has won only one gold medal. The most dominant team in that tournament is Cuba, which has won 3 gold and 2 silver medals in five summers. The United States has a total of 3 medals, adding 2 bronze medals to the one gold. Japan, defending World Baseball Classic champion, has amassed one silver and two bronze medals.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, puts pressure on the USA team in the World Baseball Classic to make this tournament different from the Summer Olympics, "It's our game. Baseball is America's game. It doesn't belong to the Italians or the Cubans or the Koreans or the Japanese," he said. "It's our game, and we're not going to let them beat us." He went on to talk about the one gold medal the USA won against Cuba in the Olympics, "When I took the Olympic team to Australia, everybody said to me, 'You've got no chance. Cuba has never, ever lost a tournament.' And I said, 'Did they ever lose a game?' 'Oh, yeah.' 'Then, they're going to lose one here in Australia.' "

Lasorda obviously believes that the Olympics is a barometer for who is the best baseball team in the world. His emotional response to this baseball tournament and his desire for the USA to win the World Baseball Classic, proves that he is disappointed in the less than dominant showing the USA team has brought to the Olympics year after year.

One might say the World Baseball Classic has major leaguers and is a better showcase of the true levels of talent in each country. While this may be true, it is also true for other countries and obviously helped the Japanese, South Korean, and Dominican teams who placed 1st, 3rd, and 4th respectively in the World Baseball Classic three years ago. The Cuban team, runners up in 2006, most likely fielded the same level team they have in the Olympics.

Tommy Lasorda wants the USA to show that with a full team of major leaguers they can be the best team in the World. He wants the Olympics to no longer be the barometer. He wants "to win this thing. And we've got to bear down and believe and be proud that you're wearing the uniform of their greatest country in the world."

From atop the Empire State Building, 81 year-old Lasorda may have blown more hot air than anything else that high in the sky.