By definition, anybody who gets up in darkness to watch a sports event is a junkie. This dawned on me, quite literally, as I woke up the last two mornings to watch the World Baseball Classic from Tokyo.
I can remember our friend in Wales "knocking us up," as they say over there, to watch a rugby cup match from Australia. It was very dark in Wales at that hour. Our friend was a rugby junkie. My pal in San Francisco trudges out to the local social club extremely early on Sunday to watch live soccer matches from Italy. He's a junkie -- a tifoso, as they say in Italian.
My guess is that this strange new baseball tournament will turn some Americans into Classic junkies, particularly when the event moves to more comfortable time zones starting Tuesday. I think wary fans (and even some blase players) will catch on to the challenge of representing an entire nation; the quite legal eccentricity of Mike Piazza's playing for Italy; the possibility that Derek Jeter of the US will low-bridge Bernie Williams of Puerto Rico at second base. (Somehow I don't see good old Bernie dumping the Yankees' captain -- not a good career move.)
But you never know in international sport. I've seen winter teammates whacking one another during the summertime intensity of the soccer World Cup. Instead of being teammates at Juventus or Napolior whatever, all of a sudden they were two chippy bands of Argentines and Brazilians. I can only hope this baseball tournament will produce one-tenth the energy and subplots of the World Cup, the best sports event in the world. And, you know, eventually it could.
Right now, the Classic is a work in progress, with 16 teams from around the world playing in four separate groups -- at an unfortunate time of year, but I don't have a better suggestion.
Americans may be slow to process this Classic because of the recent bombardment by that made-for-TV spectacle, the Olympic Winter Games. Where was the Classic's mercy rule during the infestation of curling?
Right away, I liked the Classic's mercy rule. Friday morning's game was stopped after eight innings when Japan took an 18-2 lead over China -- well beyond the 10-run limit after seven innings. They did the same after seven in yesterday's 14-3 Japan victory over Taiwan. Is it mercy for the players or mercy for the fans -- or both? Where was that rule when I was covering the hideous Mets in their first six seasons?
Meanwhile, there were all these strange permutations from the Tokyo Dome, 14 hours ahead of cold, dark New York. (I was watching ESPN2 because ESPN Deportes, which is carrying the full package of Classic games, is not available on my sad little local cable network -- the same Cablevision bumblers who own the horrendous Knicks.)
After weeks of weird sports on snow and ice, it was nice to see a good old-fashioned baseball game. Since Cablevision can't provide ESPN Deportes, why then, I'll just have to go to San Juan.
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