Today would have been Kirby Puckett‘s 53rd birthday. In honor of that, here’s what his plaque in the Hall of Fame reads:
This picture was taken by “Islespunkfan” and is used under a creative commons license.
David Wright had five RBIs in Team USA’s victory over Puerto Rico last night, and now has 10 RBIs in the tournament overall. Adding that to his stellar performance back in 2009, and he has been dubbed by Matt Vasgersian of MLB Network- along with parts of the internet- as “Captain America”.
Sadly/thankfully, there are no images of David Wright in a Captain America costume that are in either the public domain or Creative Commons (or, indeed, anywhere), so this picture will have to do:
This image is under a creative commons license, and was taken by Paul Hadsall.
Lame wordplay? Absolutely. Neat photo of the 1986 Cardinals during Spring Training? Yes.
This picture by Jeff Marquis is under a creative commons license.
Mexico may not have advanced in the WBC, but they certainly were popular with the fans during their time there. Just look at the crowd trying to get pitching coach and Mexican baseball legend Fernando Valenzuela to sign for them before a exhibition game against the Dodgers:
This picture, taken by “rwarrin”, is under a creative commons license.
It is well known that I am a big fan of the Dutch word for baseball: Honkbal. In Dutch, apparently honk means home, purpose or goal, but thanks to the fact that it means something entirely different in English, it is, well, an inherently fun and an inherently funny word to us. And the style of play of the the Dutch National Team, who upset Cuba yesterday, is infectious, a team of athletic, smooth-fielding players who won’t let the fact they play for a country that isn’t among the traditional baseball powers stop them from showing that they belong.
And, by the looks of what was trending late last night, I’m not alone in having Honkbal fever:
Honkbal fever- catch it!
Here’s a picture from a playoff game between Parma and Nettuno in 2006:
This photo is under creative commons and was taken by “Lucam”.
The games in Taichung that featured the home team were all packed-house games, as this picture from the game against the Netherlands shows:
This photo, taken by “孤雲出岫 Free Cloud”, is under a creative commons license.
Joey Votto will be taking part in the WBC, so here’s a random picture of him:
This photo, used under a creative commons license, was taken by “Another Pint Please”.
The teams that advance from Pool A and Pool B of the WBC will play here, the Tokyo Dome, also called the “Big Egg”.
Creative Commons license, taken by Nakashi.
When not managing Brazil to near-upsets of Japan or watching his son tear up the ACC, Barry Larkin travels the world as an ambassador for baseball and America, allowing him to also partake in other activities, like Cricket:
This photo, from the State Department, is used under a Creative Commons license.
The Baseball Continuum 