Anyone else following the World Baseball Classic ?

[Imran Siddiqui]

We suck... US had bases loaded (albeit 2 outs) twice and did jack with it.

[jdd2007]

WTF

Dontrelle is way too inconsistent. And who is this Wheeler guy? I'm outraged. By the way, I read it as "North Korea of all teams..." That, my friends, would be an upset.

But WTF?

[Shi Huangdi]

We need to have a world classic in a sport the USA is actually good at- like curling.

[reismark]

Well, either way, it's a "beat-Mexico-and-you're-in" situation, since if Japan loses to Mexico, they have no way of catching up, while if Japan beats Mexico, even if Japan also beats Korea, the US has 'em on head-to-head. And we've already beaten Mexico.

[Q Classic]

Y'know, I wasn't expecting Korea to do so well. Admittedly, they do have their good pitchers, but still...

I'm amazed that America is sucking balls in this tournament.

At least they're no China or South Africa.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by reismark
Well, either way, it's a "beat-Mexico-and-you're-in" situation, since if Japan loses to Mexico, they have no way of catching up, while if Japan beats Mexico, even if Japan also beats Korea, the US has 'em on head-to-head. And we've already beaten Mexico.

If Japan beats Korea, then the USA, Japan, and Korea would be in a three way tie, in which each team would have beaten one and lost to the other. In such a case, a three way tiebreaker would be occur whereby the two teams who have allowed the least runs per inning in games between the teams competing for the tiebreaker would advance.

Because the USA has already let up 10 runs against Japan/Korea, it is likely that the USA would lose out in such a tiebreaker. Therefore, we need a win and either:

-Japan losing to Mexico or Korea

-Japan allowing 7 earned runs against Korea

-Korea allowing 8 earned runs against Japan

-Japan allowing 6 earned runs against Korea OR Korea allowing 7 earned runs against Japan, and the USA defeating that team in another tiebreaker.

[Shi Huangdi]

And Korea gets the pleasure of defeating Japan once again. At this point, Korea is the only undefeated team in the tournament.

It also means USA is still alive, if we defeat Mexico again then we advance. It turns out tieberakers only apply between the teams competing for them. So we will also advance if Mexico beats us 1-0, or if Mexico beats us scoring two runs and we end up with a higher team batting average then Japan.

[Drake Tungsten]

Man, who knew Korea was so good? They were awfully quiet in their rise to world-power status...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Woot... what a performance by Korea. And Chan Ho Park is actually GOOD as a closer! Who would have thought?

[Drake Tungsten]

Is it wrong that a small part of me is hoping for an American loss to Mexico? I'm all for rooting for your home country, but it doesn't seem right for America to move on while Japan goes home after that screw-job...

[Imran Siddiqui]

That's a good point. Hell, we may just lose to Korea anyway, the way they are playing.

[Q Classic]

I think it was the dangling of the exemption that really lit a fire under the Koreans.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Dangling of the exemption?

[Q Classic]

All Korean males have to join the military at the age of 20? 21? for about 2 years, if I recall correctly.

The Korean government does grant exemptions every now and then--and they granted the Korean baseball team blanket exemption from military service if they made it to the semifinals.

Oh, those wacky Koreans.

[Imran Siddiqui]

That doesn't explain why Chan Ho Park isn't sucking though .