Allsports Disappointed with Canadians' World Baseball Classic Result

The World Baseball Classic started with so much anticipation for the Canadian contingent to do well, considering that they had home field and a pretty strong roster to work with. As people now know, if they follow sports on the web or the games on television, that was not the case.

The Canadian team was knocked out and is now left to wonder what could have been.

After a promising start against a very strong U.S. squad, the Canadians eventually fell 6-5. It was a great game and Canada was in it right up to the final pitch.

Based on that showing, I thought Canada would pull it together against Italy—a country not known to be a baseball powerhouse by any means. Well Allsports was wrong; Canada left something like 20 men on base against the Italians. They ended up dropping the game by a score of 6-2.

The loss combined with the one previously to the USA, knocked Canada out of the tournament. This left Ernie Whitt and company scratching their heads as to what went wrong.

Special mention should be given to Toronto’s local boy Joey Votto. He hit the cover off the ball in both games Canada played. It's just too bad the rest of the team did not do as well.

Moving forward, Australia has been a pleasant surprise in the tournament and has advanced to the second round. In the end, it should be interesting to see what country will come out on top.

The U.S. will be trying to avenge its poor performance of 2006. The U.S. has a team of Major League all stars and should be there when the dust settles. But in a one-game format, anything can happen. All they need to do is have a game like Canada did against Italy, and they will be gone.

Japan and Cuba are looking strong again this year and should advance to the final round too.

It's anyone’s guess as to who will come out on top, but the four countries that I think have the upper hand are the USA, Cuba, Japan, and Korea. Only time will tell.

Go Here for more on the WBC.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb

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