Flak Magazine: Winter Classic, 03.17.06

Frequently relegated to the post-SportsCenter ghetto of 11 p.m. tape-delayed broadcasts on ESPN 2, the inaugural tournament with aspirations of becoming the World Cup of baseball is dripping with classicness in only its second week.

Despite the nattering nabobs of negativism in the mainstream sports press (Yahoo didn't even bother to set up a separate Web page for the event), I was curious to check out the World Baseball Classic from the get-go, inspired by a love of baseball as well as an enthusiasm for soccer's biggest event.

When tickets went on sale for the recently concluded second round in Anaheim, Calif., I snapped up field-level seats for a game expected to feature the United States and Japan. With those countries representing the world's two top professional baseball leagues, my friends and I wanted to ensure we'd see them face off in the second round.

But what's life without a little uncertainty? While both the US and Japan emerged from the first round of play, each came out of its group as the second-best team, meaning we'd be seeing South Korea try to beat its traditional geopolitical and cultural rival — uh, Mexico.

Of course, we did what any true baseball nuts would do: We decided to buy tickets for the US vs. Japan game earlier in the same day and go to both games. Following are some of the moments that made my one day of World Baseball Classic truly great:

1. Player announcements in multiple languages: Maybe this sort of thing happened back in the days of the Montreal Expos, but it was new to me.

2. The bizarre feeling of cheering for Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones: Everybody who's not a New York Yankees fan hates A-Rod, the game's highest paid (and arguably most gifted) player. But watching him rip a single up the middle to drive in the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth after a lifetime of failing in the clutch, it was impossible not to go crazy. Even people who'd booed and jeered him the entire game, chanting "Yankees suck!" when he struck out, jumped out of their seats and roared their approval. When Jones, of the Atlanta Braves (a rival of my St. Louis Cardinals), blasted a solo home run to put the US on the scoreboard, I instantly forgot my hatred of all things Braves and rose, clapping, to watch him circle the bases.

3. The aforementioned "Yankees suck!" chant: While I, as a patriotic American, did not take part in the taunting of Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter for leaving runners on base, it's reassuring to know that a fringe benefit of globalization is that fans of all stripes, from anywhere in the world, will join in should a good Yankee razzing break out.

4. My first (and probably only) visit to Hooters: With more than three hours to kill between games, temperatures in the high 40s to low 50s and pretty much nothing within walking distance from Angels Stadium (this is, after all, Anaheim, where nothing is in walking distance from anything), we eventually decided to join nearly everyone else waiting for the second game to start at the one place we could find that served alcohol. The best moment came as a bunch of us peered through the smoking section's fence and watched part of Puerto Rico's upset win over the Dominican Republic in San Juan. As a waitress visited a nearby table, some faceless stranger muttered, "They sure are stacked!" After briefly noting once again how crude other people can be, I realized he was talking about the Dominican lineup.

5. Realizing that baseball is called "honkbal" in the Netherlands: At least, if the numerous translations of "Baseball spoken here" on the tournament's banners and T-shirts are accurate.

6. Star-Spangled snippiness: Fans of Mexico making their way through the parking lot greeted the sounds of "The Star-Spangled Banner" (played even before the South Korea-Mexico game) with a hearty "Turn that shit off!"

7. Twenty-three sons and she named them all...: It was surreal to look at the scoreboard when the Koreans batted and see "Lee" for the name of five of the nine hitters, including the first three men in the lineup. No initials. Just the surname. It even resulted in a hilarious "No more Lees!" chant from the section behind us when the top of the order came to bat in the eighth inning.

World Baseball Classic 8. Mexican wrestlers and other fan nuttiness: Los Angeles' large population of Mexican- and Korean-Americans helped turn the nightcap into a festival that happened to revolve around a baseball game. Flags were out in force, as were Thundersticks, the Korean invention popularized in the US during the 2002 World Series in Anaheim. Fans of all stripes tried to outchant one another like the crowds at World Cup soccer matches, offering up thunderous applause for some of the two countries' biggest baseball stars. Between innings, the crowd cam spotlighted the truly hardcore, such as a guy dressed as a Mexican wrestler pumping his flag to a thumping techno beat. The wave whip-sawed around the stadium half a dozen times without stopping. It felt like the '80s.

9. Oh yeah, there was some baseball played, too: In case you missed it, the United States beat Japan 4-3 on a bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, following a controversial umpiring call that kept Japan from scoring a run. South Korea topped Mexico 2-1 in a game marked by stellar defense and superb pitching, as Mexico got the tying run to third base in the top of the ninth, only to fall just short. As I stood among thousands of Mexican and South Korean partisans, scarf around my neck and shuddering in the cold Los Angeles night (no kidding), I cheered like a kid at his first baseball game. Classic

Despite being ESPN's well-kept secret here in the US, the tournament has been big news in many of the WBC countries and the best thing going in sports. When South Korea's win over the US on Wednesday night guaranteed the team a spot in the semifinals this weekend in San Diego, its players could rejoice in the fact that in making their country proud, they guaranteed themselves exemption from the country's mandatory 26 months of military service. When the Japanese team lost to the US in part because of a bad call at third base, it made the front page in all of Japan's newspapers.

It's hard to imagine any US publication agonizing so much over the US team getting bounced from the tournament after losing a close one to Mexico in perhaps Roger Clemens' final start Thursday night. But while Major League Baseball has room for improvement (as well as better marketing) for the next WBC in 2009, the top four teams meet Saturday in San Diego, with the final taking place on Monday. With the exception of a few lopsided first round contests and the occasional bit of questionable umpiring, the World Baseball Classic has lived up to its name. Hopefully, fans and journalists will figure that out and give the finals the love they deserve.

Flak's Andy Behrens will be attending the semifinals and finals of the WBC in San Diego on Saturday and Monday. Will Cuba triumph at America's game? Will the Dominican Republic's fearsome lineup live up to the hype? Will Japan avenge its two losses to its upstart South Korean rivals, or will Ichiro Suzuki feel the sting of failing to keep his country at the summit of Asian baseball? Keep an eye on Flak for more updates.

E-mail Eric Wittmershaus at ericw at flakmag dot com.