WBC Final

Great final shows the WBC has great potential
By Tim Dahlberg, AP Sports Columnist
TOKYO — Dodger Stadium was rocking, and this time no one was leaving during the seventh inning.
No one dared, because on the field below Japan and South Korea were playing a game so intense it seemed like the fate of their respective nations depended on the outcome.
This was the way Bud Selig always envisioned the World Baseball Classic would be. Nation against nation, extra innings with everything on the line.
No one worrying about getting hurt. Everyone worrying about letting their country down.
A perfect ending to a very imperfect tournament.
Ichiro Suzuki was already a national hero in Japan even before he lined a two-out single into center field in the 10th inning Monday night for what would prove to be the winning runs against Korea. Now they'll be building monuments to him in his home country.
And all because Selig had a vision.
Judge the WBC by its final game and the only complaint is that we have to wait until 2013 to see it again. There hasn't been a game played in March that ever meant so much, or was so much fun to watch.
Give Selig credit for that. The whole thing was his baby and the WBC, in its second incarnation, was marginally better than it was the first time around.
If we didn't know it before, we know now that, much to Tommy Lasorda's dismay, baseball is no longer just America's game. There are other countries who play it just as well, or even better, and that's just something we'll now have to start getting used to.
There are also other countries who seem to take it more seriously than we do, something that became even more painfully evident the longer the tournament went on. While the U.S. treated the tournament like extended spring training, it seemed to mean a lot more to the other semifinalists than it did the home team.
Japanese Manager Tatsunori Hara was already way past psyched before the first pitch was thrown in the last game.
"It could be the game of the century," he said.
It wasn't quite that, but it was just the game the WBC desperately needed to carry some momentum into the next tournament, which is four long years away. And the 54,846 who packed Dodger Stadium for the final certainly appreciated it, chanting, banging noisemakers and making more noise than Dodger fans combine for during an entire season.
Koreans have been playing professional baseball since only 1982, but they were coming off an Olympic gold medal win in Beijing and had the confidence to play a team they knew well. Unfortunately, their comeback to tie the game in the ninth inning was marred by a bad decision to pitch to Suzuki with first base open in the 10th inning.
Still, it was good stuff for baseball fans, especially purists who appreciate the finer things in the game. Instead of muscle-bound home run hitters, we were treated to line drive hitters who knew how to lay down bunts. Magicians with gloves roamed the field, making even the toughest plays seem routine.
The only thing missing was the U.S. team, but that was hardly a surprise. It was a hastily thrown together group, not nearly as star-studded as it should have been, and not anywhere near as prepared as other teams were to play meaningful games in March.
And while Selig deserves credit for the WBC, he deserves the blame for that. The baseball commissioner didn't use the powers of his office to order teams to surrender their best players for the classic, didn't make sure those who did come were in shape to play, and allowed the various clubs to decide how much they should play.
Selig just moved spring training forward a few days, and figured that would be enough to get the U.S. millionaires excited again.
That has to change in 2013 if Selig expects the U.S. to win. It has to change if he expects U.S. fans to care, and it has to change if the WBC is ever going to be what he believes it will eventually become.
Selig admitted as much Monday while being interviewed in the television booth during the game.
"We have to figure out ways to pick up the intensity of the U.S. team, no question about it," Selig said. "We need everybody's best players and we shouldn't accept less."
One way to start would be to move the tournament to summer. Have it replace the All-Star game, and put the major league season on hiatus for a few weeks until its over.
The players would all be in shape, and they would all be motivated. No one would have to worry about pitch counts or strained obliques.
Treat it like it really means something