It continues to amaze me that the more I look for sporting events that I could travel to, the more I discover. This past couple of weeks saw the 2009 World Baseball Cup played in Europe. Hosted by 8 countries with the finals held in Italy; the competition featured 22 teams, from powers like the USA and Cuba down to European minnows such as Sweden and the Czech Republic. I would have loved to have been able to make a trip to a few of these games, although I expect the logistics would have been difficult. Still, making this sort of trip is what I aspire to.
I won't go into detail here on the outcome, other than to say it's great that Canada grabbed 3rd place in the tournament. It's true that some countries were unable to send their best players. Japan, for example, could only send players from their industrial leagues as their university leagues are currently in action (more on that in a future post). So it's not entirely surprising that they were knocked out after round 2. But Canada did send a strong team and they were rewarded with a 12-3 composite record and the bronze medal. I didn't realize that Canada is ranked 7th in the world, but here's hoping that they're able to keep things going for the 2012 Olympics. Oh wait. Baseball's out of the Olympics. So guess it's the 2012 WBC to hope for.
The USA defeated Cuba 10-5 in the final to take their 2nd consecutive World Cup and 4th overall. Cuba still leads with 25 titles, including 8 consecutive between 1984 and 2005.
Best,
Sean
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