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30 March 2009
Japan Wins World Baseball Classic as Talent Diffuses Worldwide
South Korea runner-up in 16-team world tournament
Washington — When Japan defeated South Korea 5–3 in a crisply played extra-inning game to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) March 23, it continued a trend that has seen the Asian teams come fully into their own in a sport that started out as “America’s pastime.”
For Japan, the victory retained the championship crown it won in the first classic in 2006, when it defeated Cuba in the final. South Korea’s impressive showing reinforced the reputation gained when it won the baseball gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, site of the championship game, was filled with thousands of boisterous fans supporting each of the teams, clapping ThunderStix, banging on drums, clanging cowbells and just plain shouting for their favorites. The area is home to many Japanese Americans and Korean Americans.
When the hard-fought game was over, courtesy of a two-run single by Ichiro Suzuki in the top of the 10th inning and a strong finish by 22-year-old pitching phenomenon Yu Darvish, the jubilant winners circled the field carrying a huge Japanese flag.
Perennial baseball powerhouses had been dispatched earlier in the nearly three weeks of competition. Japan beat the United States 9–4 in a semifinal game.
Cuba, another team with a proud baseball history, was knocked out by dual losses to Japan in the second round. Cuba’s sixth-place finish was the worst ever for the island nation, breaking a streak of 40 consecutive trips to the finals in major international competition, which produced 33 championships.
And the Dominican Republic, boasting a roster loaded with Major League Baseball stars like David Ortiz, Hanley Ramírez and José Reyes, exited the tournament after two first-round defeats by the lightly regarded team from the Netherlands. That made the Dutch the surprise story of the tournament — but they were soon eliminated via round 2 losses to Venezuela and the United States.
“The world has caught up with us,” said Bob Watson, a Major League Baseball vice president, after the U.S. loss to Japan in the semifinals. (See “Baseball, Once Just an American Game, Extends Reach Worldwide.”)
U.S. baseball commentators have speculated on several reasons that may have contributed to the American team’s disappointing showing. Since the classic was held early in the major leagues’ spring training period, some say, Manager Davey Johnson’s strategy was constrained by the demands of the individual teams that insisted when they loaned their stars that they get work, yet not overtax their bodies by going all out prematurely.
The team did, in fact, lose multiple players to mostly minor injuries like muscle strains — stars including infielders Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia and Chipper Jones, left fielder Ryan Braun and reliever Matt Lindstrom.
Players for Japan and South Korea had been working out as teams since January, a factor that Johnson told reporters “does give them a head start when you play them in March.”
Veteran baseball historian and writer John Holway sees those elements as playing a role, but says they don’t tell the whole story. “That’s not enough of an excuse, because back in the 1950s, our team would have clobbered anybody else. Now we don’t clobber them anymore,” he told America.gov.
The January start by the Asian players may show a difference in motivation and discipline, Holway said, adding, “I don’t know whether our players would be willing to do that.” As for the injuries, he said, “I’m not sure how important those were. Maybe some guys were just malingering and wanted to get back to their teams.”
Holway’s own memories of Japanese baseball go back to 1953 when, he says, two touring Major League Baseball teams — the New York Giants and one composed of all-stars — visited Japan and won 23 games, losing just two and tying one.
The Japanese “have come a long way,” Holway said. “They’re certainly showing those days when they were swept aside by the big leaguers are over.”
Holway had a droll comment on the influx of foreign stars on U.S. teams — including Suzuki and pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, named most valuable player in the classic. “It used to be America was a net exporter of baseball talent. Guys who were too old to stay on the big league teams would go to Japan to make some extra money at the end of their careers. But now we’re a net importer. We have an unfavorable balance of trade on shortstops and other ballplayers,” he said.
Baseball is “better than ever before,” both here and abroad, and the United States has “enriched our game with great players from other countries,” Holway said. “Maybe it’ll come to the point where we have our World Series champion play against whoever is designated the best in the world,” he speculated.
Meanwhile, Japan remains WBC champion until the next tournament, due in 2013.
