SAN DIEGO, 21 March 2006 — Japan and Cuba will be playing for more than a title when they meet in the final of the World Baseball Classic on Monday.
Respect will be the big reward for the winner, which has come slowly, particularly from American baseball fans, who have long considered the game they invented their own and Major League Baseball the best in the world.
But when the two teams line up along the baselines for introductions at Petco Park on Monday evening, only two Major League Players will be on the field and both for Japan; Seattle Mariners all-star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and Texas Rangers pitcher Akinori Otsuka.
“I feel really proud that I’m the only one of two Major League Baseball players to play in the final game,” Suzuki told reporters. “Of course, I sense that MLB is hurting a little bit.” And so are US pride and television ratings with no American rooting interest in the final.
While the Cubans and Japanese have long played baseball with the same passion as Americans they have demonstrated throughout the two-week, 16-nation tournament that they are also capable of playing with the same high level of skill.
Isolated by decades of sanctions imposed on Fidel Castro’s Communist regime, baseball-mad Cubans have long been left to speculate how they would match up against top major league opposition. That question was answered on Sunday when Cuba’s amateurs beat a Dominican Republic team, loaded from top to bottom with all-star major league talent, 3-1 to book their place in the final.
Japan, displayed no less grit and determination pounding unbeaten South Korea 6-0 in their semifinal, avenging two earlier painful defeats to their bitter rivals.
As a result, the final will be an intriguing showdown of ‘Japanese style’ baseball.
