Willets Point

According to Gameday, Japan's got the bases loaded with one out. Hitoshi Tamura at the plate. Meanwhile Michigan has a 3 point lead with 2 minutes left.

Wow Japan and Cuba are in double overtime. F-ing NIT. Not even a real tournament.

Once a Yankee....

He's the Original Met as this forum's name attests. Another Met from before my time, but he was legendary. Actually, I don't recall any specific Ed Kranepool stories other than his endurance as a Met and thus holder of many of the Met longevity records. I'll open this up to the oldtimers to share their Kranepool memories.

The regular schedule is four years. The first one was supposed to be in 2005 but they weren't ready in time so they had this year instead. 2009 gets the WBC on its regular schedule so it won't be in the same years as the soccer World Cup and the Winter Olympics in the future.

Frayed Knot wrote: Your sked has players who have been at it everyday from February -October signing up to be part of a national team from as early as Oct 10th thru the end of November? They did four weeks this year, so it's not that much different. Maybe they'll report to camp later then. Anyhow, it should be noted once again that this is not an every day / every player thing but a once every four years thing in which about only 30% of MLB players will participate.

I'm dissapointed that during Leiter's appearance in the WBC that the announcers did not inform me this could be his last appearance.

AL EAST: Boston Toronto New York Tampa Bay Baltimore AL CENTRAL: Cleveland Chicago (WC) Minnesota Detroit Kansas City AL WEST: LAnaheim Oakland Texas Seattle NL EAST: Atlanta New York (WC) Philadelphia Washington Florida NL CENTRAL: St. Louis Milwaukee Houston Chicago Pittsburgh Cincinatti NL WEST: Los Angeles San Francisco San Diego Arizona Colorado AL DIVISIONAL: Boston beats Cleveland, Chicago beats Anaheim NL DIVISIONAL: St. Louis beats New York, Atlanta beats Los Angeles ALCS:Boston beats Chicago NLCS: St. Louis beats Atlanta WORLD SERIES:Boston beats St. Louis

Axl Rose born February 6, 1962 Gina Gershon born June 10, 1962

Who is Gina Gershon?

I don't know how to get past the FA/insurance thing, maybe the FA's would just sit out like a lot of players did this year anyway (remember this is a once every four years event anyhow). I think a November WBC would work well like this (using the 2006 calendar just as an example): Oct. 1 - Regular Season ends Oct. 3 - Division series begins Oct. 10 - Players on non-playoff teams report to national team training camps. League Championshp series begins Oct. 16 - Players from teams eliminated in divisional series report to camps. Oct. 21 - World Series begins Oct. 23-30 - Scrimmages in WBC training camps Oct. 25 - Players from teams eliminated in LCS join camps. Oct. 29 - World Series ends Nov. 3 - 10 - WBC Round I Nov. 15 - 21 - WBC Round II Nov. 24 (day after Thanksgiving) - WBC Semifinals Nov. 26 - WBC Finals (primetime Sunday night) I think the tie-in with Thanksgiving weekend would be very effective for the finals. People watch football on Thanksgiving day but the day after is free other than that we are exhorted to go shopping. I'm sure many would be much happier stuffing their faces and watching baseball. The early rounds can be weeknight games and leave Saturdays to college football and Sundays to the NFL. The WBC final will be on a Sunday night so whatever network covers it can use their day of NFL games as a lead in to the WBC final to boost the ratings.

Oh wait a minute I got it now. Staring me in the face when I view my post. You know something, I totally forgot about that series of Being Mets Player So & So memories threads. I can't even remember what the last one I did or how many I must have skipped. I suck. So let me do Leiter. First memory of Al is from the 1997 World Series where I was convinced he looked like this guy I worked with named Ron. January 1998 I'm traveling around Ireland and I have 30 minutes in a cybercafe. After checking my emails & such I have a few minutes left and look at Metsonline and in the forum I see a post that says "Hey, we got Al Leiter!" So now the Mets have a top starter from World Series champions and he turns out pretty good. I 1999 he helps the Mets into the playoffs. He pitches brilliantly the wild card playoff against Cincinnatti, but later trashes the diner against Atlanta (tip o' the pen to Edgy). Somewhere in the post-season of 1999 or 2000 a guy on the radio says "Al Leiter will have to be Al Leiter if the Mets are to win this series." To this day my wife brings up "Leiter being Leiter" anytime his name comes up. As the Mets descend from playoff team to cellar dweller, Al goes with them and annoys the hell out of Mets fans by working long counts on every batter. It was a relief when he finally left the team, but I still have soft part in my heart for Al Leiter when he was Al Leiter from 1998-2001.

What-huh?

Japan's in the final.

If Japan holds on to win, the number of Major League Baseball players who could appear in the final would be 1.

Ground rule double plates another run for Japan. BK Kim getting the hook.

And he allows a two-run homer to Japan's pinch-hitter.

The hits keep on coming, balls flying out of the yard and runners crossing home plate for both sides. Not.

Korea hits 'em deep to left, right, and center all for long outs.

And Korea's caps look like they were made for a beer-league softball team. You've got to love that. Ichiro once again leads off with a single, steals second, and his teammates don't drive him in.

Awesome DP gets Korea out of a jam.

I love listening to Miller & Morgan pronounce Asian names.

Can Korea remain undefeated and beat Japan for the third time? Ex-Met Jae Seo on the mound for Korea.

Cuba wins! Holy shit part deux!

Jose Reyes pinch hitting.