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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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Worry: Will U of Miami grads simply be assumed to be guilty?

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One thing that noticed- and worries me- in the recent wave of PED news is that many of the players have a big connection: The University of Miami.

Ryan Braun played for the University of Miami.

Yasmani Grandal played for the University of Miami.

Danny Valencia played for the University of Miami.

Cesar Carrillo, a minor leaguer who has been connected to BioGenesis, went to the University of Miami.

Alex Rodriguez has been a major financial donor to the University of Miami baseball program- their park even bears his name.

Jimmy Goins, named in the Biogenesis reports, is the strength and conditioning coach for the University of Miami.

I’m hardly the first to notice this, look at what Tim Brown and Jeff Passan wrote at Yahoo!:

The early portion of MLB’s investigation has focused on the web of connections to the University of Miami, where Braun attended college. Carrillo, a pitcher in the Detroit Tigers organization, was Braun’s road roommate for three years. Jimmy Goins, a strength-and-conditioning coach at the school and alleged client of Bosch’s, worked with Braun during his three years at Miami. Goins has denied a connection to Bosch.

And this leads to my concern: Will others consider former Hurricanes players to be guilty until proven innocent? Will a new star who comes to the majors, having played at “The U”, have whispers behind their back?

Because that would not be healthy for the sport. There still needs to be evidence, one cannot just assume that because player X went to college Y he must be on PEDs. And we must never forget that.

Famous for something else: Kurt Russell

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Kurt Russell is an actor who has starred in films like Miracle, Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China, but in his youth, he played minor league baseball:

Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB
1971 20 Bend NORW A- CAL 51 212 179 30 51 11 0 1 14 2 3 29 33 .285 .385 .363 .748 65 0 4 0
1972 21 Walla Walla NORW A- 29 91 77 12 25 4 0 0 14 1 1 8 7 .325 .389 .377 .766 29 2 1 3
1973 22 2 Teams 2 Lgs A–AA CAL 29 99 4 28 3 1 1 4 1 2 1 1 .283 .364 36 0 0 0
1973 22 Portland NORW A- 23 83 19 0 1 0 .229 .253 21
1973 22 El Paso TL AA CAL 6 17 16 4 9 3 0 1 4 1 2 1 1 .563 .588 .938 1.526 15 0 0 0
1977 26 Portland NORW A- 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0
4 Seasons 110 404 356 46 104 18 1 2 32 4 6 38 41 .292 .361 .365 .726 130 2 5 3
A- (4 seasons) A- 104 387 340 42 95 15 1 1 28 3 4 37 40 .279 .351 .338 .689 115 2 5 3
AA (1 season) AA 6 17 16 4 9 3 0 1 4 1 2 1 1 .563 .588 .938 1.526 15 0 0 0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/5/2013.

What’s interesting about Russell’s baseball career is that it happened DURING his acting career. He had been on TV, and had starred in Disney movies like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, which came out in 1969. As you can see, he actually did pretty well, but a rotator cuff injury derailed him.

But that isn’t all. His father, actor Bing Russell, owned a minor league baseball team, and his nephew, Matt Franco, played in the big leagues for the Cubs, Mets and Braves.

Humor: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ALEX RODRIGUEZ?

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The Yankees have seemingly sent Alex Rodriguez into hiding, to keep him away from reporters and paparazzi.

Not going to stop me.
I know EXACTLY where Alex Rodriguez is. He’s somewhere here:

Yes, Alex Rodriguez is somewhere on Planet Earth. Oh, sure, it is not impossible, given his great wealth, that he has fled to Mars, Alpha Centauri or Altair IV, but there is no evidence he has done so, as we would have been able to see his Warp Signature, or something (any Star Trek fans out there, feel free to correct me).

So, where on Earth is Alex Rodriguez? Has he donned a red hat and coat? Or is he going the red-and-white shirt route?

Nobody knows.

That said, let’s face it, this is Alex Rodriguez. He lives in Florida (especially Miami) but reportedly has houses or apartments in the New York Metropolitan Area and near Los Angeles. So, uh… start there.

So, yeah, not specific, but there you go.

Coming in the next week on the Baseball Continuum

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The Continuum kicks back into high gear on Monday, with more WBC stuff, more “Bizarre Baseball Culture” and various other stuff. Apologies for how the last few days have not been to the usual standards, but sometimes, you need to rest up and conserve energy, to prepare for big things.

Those big things are coming. Oh, yes, they are coming.

Just a reminder, by the way, that Joe Connor’s WBC guide is still for sale to anybody with either a credit card or a Paypal account.

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.

The Meaning of Jackie Robinson

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The true meaning of Jackie Robinson (who would turn 94 today) is often forgotten.

I, like many others, have grown up in a sports world where it has not mattered what the color of a player’s skin was, only his talent. It matters not whether the player is Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Polynesian, or a mix of the above. All that matter is simply whether they can play. This is not just true in baseball, but in other sports as well. It is a meritocracy: If you are good, you are good, and if you stink, then you stink.

While there are, of course, still some cowards out there who continue to throw out racial epithets from the safety of anonymous accounts on the internet, they are just that- cowards. They know that what they are trying to peddle no longer is welcome in the American fan-scape.

And, although it is something of an exaggeration to say this, Jackie Robinson can be thanked for this. As not only did he show that talent knew no race, but he also showed dignity and courage doing it. He defeated those who hated and heckled him by simply ignoring them, not by giving in and returning their hatred.

A good example for any and all who have faced bullies. And something that has led to a better country, both on the field and off.

Happy Birthday, Jackie Robinson.