Category Archives: International

BREAKING NEWS: All of the WBC Games on MLB Network will be live- except for Korea vs. Netherlands

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I mentioned in one of my World Baseball Classic Q&As that MLB Network was going to broadcast the WBC, but noted that there was only one MLB Network and sometimes there might be more than one game going on.

So, to find out, exactly, whether all of the games on MLB Network were going to be live, I decided to… write to MLB Network. Here is their response:

Dan,

Thank you for your interest in MLB Network and the World Baseball Classic. All games will be aired live with the exception of the Korea vs. Netherlands game on Saturday, March 2 at 6:30 am ET. This game overlaps with the Japan vs. Brazil game at 5 am ET, so it will air in full starting at 8 am ET on Saturday, March 2.

Thank you,

MLB Network

 

I also wouldn’t be shocked if some games end up getting joined “already in progress” if some games go long, but that is so standard that I think we can assume that even if it’s not confirmed.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that it’s been confirmed that all of the WBC games (save for Korea vs. Netherlands) will be live on MLB Network, although it made sense to presume so beforehand. So, I guess I can say that this is the first news ever broken by the Baseball Continuum, unless I missed a sentence somewhere in a press release awhile ago.

So, there you have it: MLB Network will be the LIVE home of every World Baseball Classic game, except for the Korea-Netherlands game, which will be on tape delay.

The COMPLETE Grand World Baseball Classic Question and Answer

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If you don’t want to read the WBC Q&A posts one by one, feel free to go below the jump to see the whole thing. In addition, don’t forget that Joe Connor’s WBC Guide remains on sale.

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The grand World Baseball Classic Question and Answer (Part 4: Miscellaneous)

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If you haven’t seen the previous Q&A installments, you can find them here, here and here.

Today’s WBC Q&A covers basically everything else that is left on the World Baseball Classic that I haven’t covered elsewhere. Go below the jump for it.

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World Baseball Classic Update: Gio Gonzalez upgrades the USA rotation

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With Kris Medlen and Andy Pettitte out and Justin Verlander still making up his mind, the Team USA rotation was down to R.A. Dickey, Ryan Vogelsong and Derek Holland. Hardly a rotation of slouches (you could do very well in MLB with a front three that looked like that), but not exactly the names to strike fear into the hearts of the world’s hitters.

Well, yesterday, Team USA got an upgrade: Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals. Although currently under a cloud of suspicion due to his name being on the Biogenesis papers (but apparently not linked to any banned substances), Gonzalez instantly gives Team USA’s rotation a good shot in the arm. He won 21 games last season while leading the NL in strikeouts per 9 IP and fewest HR per 9 IP. He’s left-handed, young, and a two-time All-Star.

And, more importantly, it gives Team USA two aces, not just one, as well as two left-handed starters, not just one.

And, what’s more, if Verlander decides to play, it could allow Team USA to have a rotation of Verlander, Dickey, Gonzalez, Vogelsong and Holland.

And that rotation would strike fear into the hearts of the world’s hitters.

World Baseball Classic update: In which Felix Hernandez drops out and Venezuela doesn’t take it well

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Not wanting any type of freak injury or something mess up his mega-contract negotiations, Felix Hernandez has dropped out of the World Baseball Classic.

Venezuela, which takes the WBC very seriously, is not happy. At all. How not happy are they?

Well, here’s an image of what a sports newspaper in Venezuela looks like today. According to Google Translate, that headline basically says that Felix has devalued Venezuela, or no longer appreciates Venezuela, or something like that. The news also is on the front page of the two Venezuelan newspapers on the Newseum website, and Venezuelan journalist Efrain Ruiz Pantin tweeted that for many Venezuelans it was a bigger deal than that country’s recent currency devaluation. Another Venezuelan journalist reported that the chairman of the Venezuelan Baseball Federation wants to veto/ban any teams from signing Venezuelans if they won’t collaborate with international competitions. It is presumably only a matter of time before Hugo Chavez himself comments on the situation, assuming that he isn’t in the hospital again.

And this is what leads to a tough situation for Latino players in the WBC: they have left their homelands, where they often lived in poverty, for riches in America. They are literally playing for a way to have their families have a better way of life. So they cannot be blamed for passing on the WBC when it could possibly endanger the riches that could keep help their family for generations. This is (more or less) what Felix Hernandez himself tweeted out shortly after the news came out: the financial security of his family was what was coming first.

But, on the other hand, the WBC is a big deal in the Caribbean, and if a player backs out, they appear ungrateful to the nation that had been supporting them and has been holding the player as a national hero. You could not blame a player for risking a big contract to play for such passionate fans.

And so, players like King Felix are in a no-win situation. Don’t play in the WBC, and an entire nation questions his patriotism (or worse). Play in the WBC, and you could run a risk- however small- of ruining the chance to have yourself and your family being set for life.

Felix made his choice. It will be interesting to see what follows.

The grand World Baseball Classic Question and Answer (Part 3: Nationality and other eligibility stuff)

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Part one can be found here, Part two can be found here.

Today’s Q&A is about the World Baseball Classic’s roster rules, you can see it after doing the jump:

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The grand World Baseball Classic Question and Answer (Part 2: The Game Rules)

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Okay, if you saw yesterday’s post, you are no doubt prepared for another round of questions and answers about the World Baseball Classic. Today, we look at some of the rules and regulations of the tournament… after the jump:

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The grand World Baseball Classic Question and Answer (Part 1: The Basics)

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The World Baseball Classic, and people’s coverage of it, is often filled with innuendo, missed information or taking hearsay as fact. It’s happened to me, it’s happened to the actual media, and it’s happened even to Major League Baseball itself.

It’s not hard to see why. It’s still a relatively new event, after all, not a yearly decades-old baseball mainstay like the All-Star Game, or like other events like the Olympics, which have been going on for over a century. In addition, it isn’t as centralized, and information is often crossing linguistic and national borders. So something about a roster change in one country might not reach the rest until later, or a claim by a player in one language might lose it’s nuance when translated into English.

So, anyway, to clear things up, go after the jump for part 1 of a Q&A on the WBC.

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Could a MLB team be heading to Korea in 2014? Or the Netherlands? Or both?

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According to an article linked to from MyKBO, there are some talks in the works by the KIA Tigers to try to get an MLB team to travel to Korea to play them in an exhibition game to open the Tigers’ new stadium.

Now, no team is mentioned, although it’s said that it’s likely to be a team popular in Korea. Of course, who knows if it will happen due to logistics and other issues.

What will probably happen- at least some time in the next few years (possibly as early as next year) there will be games in the Netherlands. These games, which will be the first in Europe, will likely involve AL or NL East teams, will be played at a new stadium being built in Hoofddorp that will be able to be expanded temporarily to a 30,000 seat stadium.

It’ll be interesting to see how all of this turns out, especially given the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

Medlen out of World Baseball Classic… due to baby

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Well, scratch Kris Medlen off of Team USA’s starting rotation, as he won’t be pitching due to the fact that his wife will be having a baby any day now.

Now, there have been plenty of people who have complained about players who drop out of the World Baseball Classic, but I have to say, this is probably the best reason possible to miss the WBC. It’s actually happened before: Wei-Yin Chen declined a chance to pitch for Taipei for similar reasons, and Nick Markakis, if memory serves, passed on Team USA in 2009 because his child was due in March.