European Baseball Championships

[Guest The Second Spitter]

I was watching the game between Italy and Spain I had Tivoed at some point last week and completely forgot about (well, I wasn't going to watch the Mets game).

Italy had a runner on first with 1 out, the Italian hitter hits a ground-ball to 1st, who threw to 2nd to get the out. The Spanish SS then tried for the double-play but was apparently taken out by the lead runner. The umpires conferred and the hitter was ruled out on interference. However, television replays confirmed that the Spanish SS DIVED -- the runner was nowhere near him. First time I've ever witnessed such shenanigans on a baseball field. I mean, does that sort of thing even happen at the Little League level?

Italy upset the Netherlands in the Championship Game to win their 9th title. Germany finished 3rd, while Greece finish 4th --pretty good for a country that didn't have organized baseball until 2006.

[MFS62]

I guess he learned the dive from watching too much soccer.
I can't remember that kind of thing happening here. The closest thing is when a batter takes an inside pitch that may have hit the handle of the bat and then tries to go to first, pretending he was hit by the pitch. Teh umps usually will getthat one right.
Later

[Willets Point]

How many spectators turn out for the European Baseball Championship final? Does it look like a soccer game in the US?

[metirish]

I wonder if Piazza was involved with the Italian team , last I saw of him in the SNY booth I think he mentioned he was heading over there to coach with them again.

[ashie62]

metirish wrote: I wonder if Piazza was involved with the Italian team , last I saw of him in the SNY booth I think he mentioned he was heading over there to coach with them again.

You are correct Sir!

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Willets Point wrote: How many spectators turn out for the European Baseball Championship final? Does it look like a soccer game in the US?

3,248 according to the box score.

metirish wrote: I wonder if Piazza was involved with the Italian team , last I saw of him in the SNY booth I think he mentioned he was heading over there to coach with them again.

Ordinarily I find it hard to root for any Italian national team, but this is one that I could.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

They polled 5,000 people in Greece -- only 3 per cent were able to remotely describe what baseball was. Here's a snippet of the doco;

Of course, the Greek Orthodox priest had some idea -- he has an association with Jesus.