Yesterday’s games were a real promotion for the World Baseball Classic. Exciting games in which the score went back and forth and the one of this morning with a perhaps unexpected outcome showed that this event is worth watching. Venezuela 11 – 10 Italy Yesterday, team Italy showed again that you cannot rule out the…
It seems there is a glimmer of hope that the Haarlem Baseball Week will continue. A few baseball fans from Haarlem want to cooperate to continue the bi-annual event in 2018 According to the local Haarlem newspaper, two of the initiators are Robert Sant and Gerrit Ligtenberg, who always have felt a strong involvement with…
After the Dutch ladies failed to pull the trigger vs Cuba yesterday and did not get what they deserved, they did not come close to claim the victory vs the USA today. In three innings, the USA walked away to a 10-0. That was a sign for manager Jonathan Pollard to use players with less playing…
The WBSC released the new World Rankings today. https://twitter.com/WBSCBaseball/status/710794210555854848 As expected Japan remained in first place as did the USA remained in second. Chinese Taipei moved up a spot and Korea moved up four due to their great performance during the inaugural Premier 12. Cuba dropped to fifth place. The biggest free fall made team…
Now the Premier 12 tournament is over, it is time for a review. What was a success and what went wrong? In sporting terms, the tournament was a success, despite the lack of (current) MLB players. Especially the fact that Korea blocked the way to the final for Japan was a major surprise. And the…
In the championship game Korea took on the USA. With solid pitching and defense the Korean kept the Americans in check. The Koreans took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning and extended their lead with another run in the top of the third. Keun-Woo Jeong led off the first with a…
In the second semi-final, the USA took on Mexico. It was a miracle itself that Mexico got this far. The Mexican baseball federation had a feud with the several Mexican winter leagues, who did not want to lend their players. For a long time it looked like that Panama would take the place of the…
In the fourth round of the Premier 12 tournament, there was perhaps one surprise. The game between Cuba and Taiwan had an unexpected outcome. Group A Italy 0 – 4 Canada Unbeaten Canada took on Italy that was still without a win. Jared Mortesen (seven innings) and Jared Kyle (two innings) shut out Italy…
On day five of the Premier 12 there were no surprises. Group A: Canada 9 – 8 Chinese Taipei In a close game between Canada and Chinese Taipei, the Canucks stayed at the right side of the score, though it was barely. For a home crowd of only 10,245 Taiwan took a 2-0 lead…
On day four, the first full day with a complete program, we could experience a few surprises again. Group A Puerto Rico 0 – 2 Canada Both teams had won their first game on the previous day. Canada vs Cuba and Puerto Rico vs Italy. In this game both would be each other’s match…
