Francoeur’s WBC place set | ajc.com
I am greatly surprised that Jeff made the World Baseball Classic roster, but apparently there was a shortage of righthanded power. Chipper’s on the team as well, and of course Andruw is the Dutch team.
Chris Reitsma will pitch for Canada. I hadn’t realized he was Canadian, what with being born in Minnesota. At any event, that probably hurts his chances of winning the closer job for the Braves.
(Thanks to Cary.)
Word.
I don’t mind if the position players participate in the WBC. They’ll get their ABs in spring training anyway. But I’m not crazy about the pitchers doing it. I’m very glad that Hudson & Smoltz have bagged it. I wish Reitsma would, as well.
And personally, I can’t take this thing seriously if a) the pitchers can’t go all-out & are restricted to pitch counts and b) the best players aren’t playing.
It’s a global marketing opportunity, I could care less who wins, & I just hope nobody gets hurt.
I am pretty disappointed with the US outfielding corps, actually. Those guys are the absolute best we could do? Guys I’d rather have than Francoeur: Sheffield, Brian Giles, Dunn, Edmonds, Cliff Floyd, even Grady Sizemore and Chone Figgins.
I am all for the WBC – great idea. The soccer world cup is fantastic, and it will be great if baseball can create a similar event which will help globalise the sport. However, I cannot understand how Andruw Jones can represent the Netherlands? Presumeably he has got some Dutch blood in him somewhere, but couldn’t he get on the US team? More to the point wouldn’t he rather play for the US? Has he ever been to Holland? Can he speak Dutch? Has he even met any of his Dutch team mates? I lived in Holland for 10 years – the only baseball diamond I saw was at the American School …. the Dutch do not play baseball, nor is mlb even on TV.
I am just concerned that it is going to be a bit of a sham with only about four decent teams which may devalue the competiton. We’ll see.
On a seperate note I hear that might reinstate baseball and softball for the 2012 Olympics – which is great news!
Curacao is a Dutch colony. The Dutch team is mostly made up of a combination of players from there and Aruba and of Americans of Dutch ancestry.
Andruw is from Curacao, which is a Dutch territory. He speaks (IIRC) English, Dutch, Spanish, and Papiamiento (an island mixture of a bunch of languages).
And FWIW, if Andruw wanted to play for the US, he’d be our starting CF. No question about it.
Fair enough – I guess that is why he qualifies for the Netherlands! Apologies for the rant. I wonder if he feels more affinity to the Netherlands than the US? Anyway, it is good for the WBC that he is representing Holland as it makes it more interesting – but I don’t think they’ll get far.
On a seperate note, who are favourites – US presumably?
I think that the Dominicans are actually the favorites, because many of them seem to care. There’s a lot of top-level talent on the DR team. There’s more on the American team, but the difference between having 20 top players and 30 isn’t too major when only nine at a time can play.
World Baseball Classic: Rosters
I also wish Reitsma (and Sosa) would back out of this thing. I also wish Francouer wouldn’t participate, because at-bats at the WBC (if he even gets any) aren’t the same as at-bats in Spring Training, where he might be helped with pitch selection and the holes in his swing.
Interesting. Yes, DR look very strong. I also though Venezuela would be strong but then I saw Eddie Perez on the roster – I guess he probably won’t make the final cut.
johnb,
Which football team do you support?
I assume you are talking soccer and not American Football. So on that assumption I support Liverpool – which has been a bit of a trial over the last few years but they are looking better than they have for a good few years.
And obviously I am looking forward to England lifting the World Cup in the summer.
Great to see a fellow red on here, it is hard to get their games over here, but I can get anywhere between 2-3 a month, depending on which competition they are in. These last two matches were really tough to take, but I like the direction they are going. Sorry to the rest of the members here, I didn’t mean to hijack the thread, I just had to find out if he like Chelsea or not, because I wouldn’t have been able to read his post rationally if he did. YNWA johnb
No – I hate Chelsea – especially after the shennanigans at the weekend. I know what you mean about footy on US TV. I was over in the US last year when the European cup final was on. My hotel didn’t have ESPN 2 and the only place I could find the game was some dodgy sports bar in Myrtle Beach. The sound was off and everyone thought I was crazy when I was cheering as Liverpool somehow won!
Over here we get pretty good coverage of all US sports. There are at least 2 NFL games a week; 2 NBA games a week; and during baseball season a game a day or so (and of course any game you like on MLB). The only problem is the time difference. World series week is absolutely knackering – I have to take the week of work.
…. sorry, probably too much non-baseball chat!
We have FSC(Fox soccer channel) which shows three premiership matches on Saturdays, and one on Sunday, and one or two of the midweek matches, unluckily no LFC vs Charlton, so I have to stream at work, but I will get the Wigan game live Saturday morning. I had to record the Cup final and watch it after work. Couldn’t get off.
…footy…
*dies of insanity*
There is probably more soccer on TV in the US than the UK.
We can’t get a live Saturday game at 15:00 (ie, usual kick-off time) becasue people think it will impact attendence of lower league games. So most countries in the world you can see 2 live matches on a Saturday whereas in UK it is 1 if you are lucky.
Back to baseball I heard rumours that the 2007 season may open in the UK – I couldn’t believe it when I heard it but I really hope it is true …. would be awesome …
johnb, you have nothing for which to apologize. You can hijack this baby all day long, as far as I’m concerned, if you’ll keep using words like “dodgy” and “knackering.”
Stu, how about wanker and tosser, they seem to be popular British adjectives as well.
Stu, I’m glad you’re loving the linugustic nuances between American and British English – language is a wonderful thing.
Take the word “play”. In England we only use it as a verb, not as a noun. Given that I love US sports I commonly use it in noun form which raises many a chuckle on the the footy pitch.
My favorite British phrase is “spit the dumby out”.
Alot of these WBC citizenship things are bull but I recall that Reitsma (the son of some traveling…i dont know what exactly, but it was something involving a church) did grow up in Calgary and went to HS there, so thats pretty legit. Especially by WBC standards.
Oh. side note.
Remember Billy Bennett? The Georgia kicker?
Hes a rocker/producer/engineer now.
http://myspace.com/williamprince
Slightly rootsy, in the early Wilco way, rock
“Hear me comin” is pretty catchy and “Fratasitc” is worth a chuckle
Evidently hes more of a producer/engineer than rocker
“Hello. I’m Billy. My middle name is Prince (not kidding). Hence William Prince. I am a prdoucer and engineer in Athens, GA. I am currently finishing up an album with The Whigs. I have also worked with other local bands in different capacities. I play in a couple of bands around, past and present, including Whole Lotta Angus, Trip Mcnealy, Kissing Sluts, Murdock, and the Filibusters.
I’ve had the opportunity to work/assist with some great artists including R.E.M., The Drive-By Truckers, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Now It’s Overhead, MGMT, The Whigs, Trances Arc, David Barbe, Bloodkin, Count, The Shining State, and a bunch of others.
I am currently working as an engineer at Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, GA. It is owned and operated by David Barbe, Andy Baker, and Andy Lemaster. “
Err … do you mean “spit the dummy out”?? I must admit that I haven’t really heard that particular phrase very often!
yes, and I have seen it quite alot.
It is still used but has been superseded by “thowing your toys out of the pram” …
The WBC ligibilty criteria are on the website that Mac posted earlier. They are pretty standard as far as I can see and in-line with other international sports …
RE: WBC.
Apparently, if one of your parents is born in another country you’re eligible to play for them. Hence, Philadelphia-native Mike Piazza is playing for Italy. (Of course, in the ’84 Olympics, South African Zola Budd lived in the UK for about 5 minutes before she was allowed to join their team.)
Re: Billy Bennett.
David Barbe’s a pal o’ mine & he tells me great things about Billy Bennett. But, I’m guessing, ‘Bama fans still will never warm to him, kinda like I never warmed to Jay Barker.
Piazza would never get on the US team …. I reckon he’d barely make the Italian team!!
What does “spit the dummy out” mean?
And what is knackering? (I just want to be sure that I get it right, since I want to be sure to use this word at least twice a day from now on.)
I’m not such a big fan of soccer, but one of the most exciting live sports I’ve ever seen is Gaelic football, which is sort of like hurling except played with a soccer-like ball instead of a hurley stick and a sliothar. (They’re both basically like a cross between rugby, soccer, and American football, except that hurling is a little more like lacrosse.)
However, when I visited Ireland in high school, the family I stayed with had a big “This is Anfield” banner in their son’s room and drank “This is Anfield” mugs, so I guess loving Liverpool must be truly international…
Back to baseball. I’m proud Jeff Francouer will be representing his country. I’d rather see him than Jeff Kent.
Well “spit the dummy out” means that you are a little upset and are causing a scene. If a baby is unhappy it will tend to “spit its dummy out” or “throw its toys out of its pram”. Hence the meaning.
Knackering is just a euphemism for being tired (but it is more than tired). For example, I have just run 10 miles and am absolutely knackered.
Liverpool are a pretty international team. They are followed heavily in Ireland beacause (a) Ireland has no decent football teams, and (b) Liverpool (and Manchester) were common destinations for Irish immigrants back in the 50s / 60s. These days Manchester United (or Manure, if you are not a fan) are much bigger internationally – especially in Asia, and also now in the US since Glazer bought them last year.
Gaelic football is on the telly, but to be honest I don’t really pay that much attention to it. It looks violent though ….
I don’t care a whit about soccer, but my 16-year-old brother is a HUGE Liverpool fan. His room is wall-to-wall posters and I would guess that he has about 5 Steven Gerrard jerseys, in addition to a big flag, a scarf, a sweatshirt, a little suction cup doll, a DVD, a book, and pictures of every single player on his ceiling. He has watched the championship game (don’t know what it’s called, but it’s the one they miraculously beat AC Milan in penalty kicks) about 50 times. It’s a bit disturbing, actually, but it makes gift-buying really easy.
We took him to a special Premiership tour game between AC Milan and Chelsea at the Meadowlands this summer, because we missed the Chelsea-DC United matchup that was closer to home. It was 100 degrees, we were in the sun, and sitting in front of drunk Hungarians with air horns. But my brother had a blast. And I have to say, European soccer is just at a different level from American soccer.
If I remember correctly, Reitsma’s father is/was a missionary to Canada, so that may explain his Canadian ties. I thought you had to be born in the country you’re playing for though…
Too true jenny, I have watched a lot of sports in my life, and watching European football is just so much easier to watch than any thing. Plus the whole no commercial thing is a real bonus.
I think ancestry to the second or third generation is acceptible, so if his grandparents or great grandparents were citizens, then that makes him eligible, or something like that.
Obviously not, cause there are many people who could choose between two countries, remember the who pay-rod thing?
Wow, more Liverpool fans. YNWA 🙂
I’m fairly certain that them beating AC Milan in the European Cup last year is the single greatest sporting event I will ever witness–the kind of happiness that is mixed with the sorrow of knowing that nothing will ever be that good again. If it were a movie script, even Disney would reject it for being too unrealistic.
The ’95 World Series was lovely, and NC State’s championship in ’83 divine–but nothing will beat [i]that night[/i] in Istanbul.
Ugh, used BB tags instead of HTML.
Although this thread is pretty much wrapped up, I agree with you Jenny about European vs US soccer. When I have been in the US watching football is like pulling teeth. I seen a couple of games and the standard isn’t great …. saying that watching Europeans play baseball would probably be equivalent to watching A ball (if you were lucky)
talking about british english and american english, you’ll love this (GO CHELSEA!!):
http://www.stephaniemiller.com/declarationofrevocation.htm
Johnb, I don’t see how you could live in the Netherlands as a baseball fan and never see a baseball (honkbal) field.
Baseball is actively played in over 200 clubs in The Netherlands. My son is 15 and has been playing in youth leagues since he was 5.
True, the level of the top competition is probably equivalent to U.S. college teams, but it is an active sport with thousands of recreational players.
The WBC is a marketing tool aimed at promoting baseball in places like European countries.
Baseball is a great game.
The NBA has had great success promoting the sport in places such as Yugoslavia. I hope the WBC is a step in the same direction for baseball.