Will this years Baseball Classic have a fairy tale ending, or will we finally see one of the top teams in the world take it all?
Every four years a tournament is held in which teams from all over the world play one another to determine who is the best in the world. For the past two years, the team from Japan has won the World Baseball Classic. They've beaten every team in the finals that everyone else picked to win. But In this year's tournament, it seems those who were eliminated in the past have come back, this time with better teams and better pitching. Each Pool seems very strong but the one that stands out to me is Pool C, coming out of Puerto Rico. This bracket seems packed with power house teams up and down the roster. Dominican Republic along with Puerto Rico will most likely be the ones to be coming out of that bracket. I think it will be different. Dominican Republic will or won't advance and what about Venezuela? I might be wrong but this is will be difficult to pedict because each team is very well rounded so anything can happen. What is special about this classic is we are able to see players who are considered the best in the world. Even if they aren’t able to advance in the tournament, this is something that is very special. The reason for this is because you are able to represent your home country with pride by playing in this tournament. Wearing that Jersey with the name across your chest is something you will never forget as a player.
Getting the chance to watch these games is tough because the tournament begins in Japan and Taiwan. Those games start late because of the time difference. Japan and Chinese Taipei are going to come out of the pools politely and will not see any real competition until they meet in round 2, which are held in Tokyo. What I have seen from the two pools, the two teams that can give a problem to the powerhouse teams in these pools are the Netherlands and first time participants Brazil, managed by Hall of Famer Barry Larkin. Brazil put up an incredible effort against Japan, which came down into the late innings until Japan pulled it off. It's still hard to tell how things will play out because the tournament is just underway and we really don’t know much. The tournament will fully get under way next week when everyone will be playing at their location of tournament play. One team I will be paying close attention to is Team USA, who has been a disappointment in how they've been playing . With a star studded line up, they should be able to change things around. Another reason why things should be changing is because of the younger players they brought along. It should be interesting to see how they play starting next week when they get tested against team Mexico. Let' s see how things turn out as the tournament plays on. I will be paying close attention to Team USA and watch what they do under manager Davey Johnson. My predictions in the final four are Teams Cuba, Dominican Republic, USA, and Japan and the winner of this whole tournament will be the Americans. I think they will be determined and on a mission to prove to the world that the Americans are the best in the world when it comes to baseball.
Come back tomorrow when I will have the recap from the big Showdown between the Miami Heat and New York Knicks.
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