Washington Post: Boras May Explore Japan for Strasburg (RR)

The Major League Rules is a sprawling, dense, little-known, 254-page document, periodically updated, that governs the business side of baseball. Among other things, it lays out, in painstaking legalese, the process and guidelines for the sport’s annual draft, and in recent years, these sections have provided a road map for a certain notorious agent bent on circumventing the draft itself.

In 1996, agent Scott Boras exploited a loophole to help gain free agency for four draftees who did not receive contract offers from the teams that selected them within 15 days of the draft, as required. A year later, he unsuccessfully attempted to make Philadelphia Phillies draftee J.D. Drew a free agent by taking him to the independent Northern League and thus changing his official status from “amateur” to “professional.”

This summer, Boras has another high-profile client, San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg, for whom he would love nothing more than to blow apart baseball’s draft system, allowing Strasburg to be compensated in line with his talent—his asking price is believed to be around $50 million—as opposed to within the parameters of the current system, in which no player has ever received more than $10.5 million.

Even before talks began with the Washington Nationals, who made Strasburg the first overall pick June 9, Boras was dropping hints privately that he is preparing to explore a new frontier in his ongoing draft-busting crusade: Japan.

Bleacher Report: The Coolest Tricks in All of Sports

This one begins and ends with baseball with a lot of other in between (some cool stuff, I had never seen the Jason Williams elbow pass) but this needs to be viewed by every living person who has ever seen a baseball game just to see Josh Womack’s trick to lead things off.  The description does not do it the smallest amount of justice:

Another recent addition to the inter-webs, minor leaguer Josh Womack is creating a huge stir with his famous bat trick.

In the video (below, left), as you can see, Womack starts his swinging motion, snaps his wrists to fling the bat around, then catches it and finishes his swing.

I’m sure this isn’t exactly what the Mariners had in mind when they drafted him in the second round in 2002, but hey, more people have seen this video than have seen the Mariners play this season.

That is just...I don’t know what it is, but it’s something.

Kokoyakyu - High School Baseball

This is a solid documentary about Japan’s Koshien baseball tournament that was just made available for free online viewing at Hulu.com.

A description from when it originally aired on PBS in 2006:

Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball opens up the world of Koshien by following the fortunes of two teams as they compete in regional games and then head for the 2003 tournament (the 86th annual games). Tennoji High School is a public school whose team is coached by a dedicated and self-effacing teacher, Masa-sensei, who becomes deeply involved in the lives and welfare of his students and their families. Tennoji, with its limited public-school resources and location in the most competitive region, always faces an uphill climb to Koshien. Chiben High School, by contrast, is an elite private school whose team is coached by the legendary Takashima, who has taken the team to Koshien more than 20 times and has won the national championship three times. So successful has Chiben been that some of the nation’s best high school baseball players go to great lengths to attend the school — and increase their chances of competing at Koshien.

Both coaches are obsessed with baseball and the values it teaches — and demands — of the students. Yet their different temperaments seem to mirror the contrast between the teams. The humbler Masa-sensei spares no feeling or attention to personal detail as he guides his students through a sports competition and trial-by-fire that will mark them for the rest of their lives. The depth of his emotional investment in his players becomes clearest at the tournament’s end. The great Takashima brings a more Olympian sensibility to the proceedings; as soon as the tournament ends, he’s already thinking of next year and the prospects for a Chiben championship. Kokoyakyu also brings us into the lives of the players, from the stars and captains to the second-stringers whose struggles to make a contribution become, perhaps, the purest expression of Japanese values in baseball.

Give it a look.

Boston Globe: Ryan: It just doesn’t add up

Is this the biggest Boston ripoff since a bunch of Lou Miami & The Kozmetix EPs were sent out scratched? You decide!

Of course, no one in power will say the team is already better off knowing that Dice-K will not be pitching for the foreseeable future. But we all know that happens to be the case.

The goal now is to restore him to, well, what, exactly?

He’s not what he was supposed to be; this much we know. He was billed as a superpitcher, a guy who threw in the mid-to-high 90s and who augmented this uberheater with as many as five auxiliary pitches, all, as they say, in the “plus’’ category. (We won’t go anywhere near that gyroball nonsense.)

We’ve never seen that guy.

...He was supposed to be one of the elite pitchers in the world. He’s not. When he’s right, he’s an OK pitcher. When he’s not right, and right now he’s far from right, he’s a massive liability.

No longer. He has been made redundant, and the 2009 Boston Red Sox aren’t going to miss him.

Nationals could replace Manny Acta with Bobby Valentine

Manny Acta appears to be on his way out as Nationals manager, and while respected ex-big league manager Jim Riggleman reportedly will be installed as the interim manager, team higher-ups also have begun internal discussions about permanent candidates. One of those candidates to replace Acta, according to National League sources, is Bobby Valentine, who is currently in his seventh season as manager of the Chiba Lotte Mariners in Japan.

No outside candidates have surfaced for Acta’s job to date, but word is that interim GM Mike Rizzo will consider Valentine, who would seem on the surface to be the perfect fit for a young, rebuilding team with public relations and attendance issues. It isn’t known who else may be on the Nationals’ short list as Acta runs short of time with the 16-45 team.

Japan’s knuckleball girl takes loss

Japan’s first female professional baseball player struggled with her control and took her first loss.

Eri Yoshida, a 17-year-old who throws a sidearm knuckleball, took the mound in the ninth inning with the score tied 2-2.

With two outs and a runner on third base, Yoshida threw a wild pitch allowing the winning run to score Friday as the Akashi Red Soldiers won 3-2 against the Kobe Cruise 9.

Yoshida also hit a batter with a pitch and threw wildly to first base trying to hold a runner before recording the final out with a strikeout.
...

The 5-feet, 114-pound Yoshida has appeared in only three of the Cruise 9’s 22 games this season.

You know SOMEBODY (I’m not going to say who) has an opinion on this.

Bobby Valentine’s Supporters Present Petition with 100,000 Signatures

Fans supporting Bobby Valentine have gathered 100,000 signatures on a petition seeking to keep the American as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines beyond the 2009 Japanese baseball season.

...

Valentine, in his seventh season as manager, had been told his contract will not be renewed at the end of the season.

I don’t see this happening for, say, Jerry Manuel.

Klapisch: Don’t count out Bobby V

The Day the 音楽 Died…

How does that relate to Valentine? Only that he remains the most logical response for the Wilpon family if the Mets fail to conquer the Phillies this year. The longer Valentine has been away from Flushing, the kinder history looks upon his reign; it’s clear his firing by Steve Phillips in 2002 was driven solely by personal dislike and not by sound baseball judgment.

Phillips’ acumen largely has been discounted now that he works for ESPN and mindlessly decrees, among other things, that the Mets can’t win with Carlos Beltran. Not that Valentine is gloating or even talking about his former boss. To the contrary, Valentine has his hands full with his present-day employers, the Chibba Lotte Marines, who decided months ago to fire him after this season.

Valentine laughs when he says, “It’s a challenging situation.” All-out war is more like it. Fans loyal to Valentine are protesting, conducting daily vigils to convince Marines’ ownership to bring him back.

Valentine, however, doesn’t expect a thaw.

“I really don’t think they’re going to say, ‘We made a mistake, we were only kidding,’ ” Valentine said. “You either appreciate what I’ve done here or you don’t. And they don’t.”

AP: Knee injury KOs Iwamura for season

CLEVELAND—Tampa Bay Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura will miss the rest of the season with a torn ligament in his left knee.

Iwamura was injured trying to turn a double play in the eighth inning Sunday against the Florida Marlins and was carted off the field.

He will have surgery after the swelling goes down, according to Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

Jose Canseco pumped up for MMA fight in Japan

The former Oakland A’s slugger is fighting 7-foot-2, 330-pound super heavyweight Hong Man Choi of South Korea on the Dream 9 card Tuesday night at Yokohama Arena.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m scared. This guy is huge,” Canseco said Monday at a press conference to promote the fight. “I’m a 44-year-old rookie and have had a lot of challenges in my baseball career and hopefully, I can do well tomorrow.”

Canseco, who hit 462 home runs over 17 seasons in the major leagues, has had several fights inside the ring since leaving baseball but has never taken on professional fighters like Choi, who has a 1-2 record in MMA.

“I have a lot of respect for these guys,” said Canseco. “A lot of baseball players are fans of mixed martial arts and so am I.”

I feel so dirty posting so many Canseco “news” items.

mlbtraderumors.com:  Rangers, Dodgers Eyeing Yusei Kikuchi

Kikuchi is highly regarded, but how does he compare to Junichi Tazawa?  Newman told me:

The way I look at it is, Kikuchi is younger, taller, and lefthanded, whereas Tazawa was a older, more polished and had faced better competition. Kikuchi appears to have similar velocity to Tazawa. Tazawa was definitely closer to the big leagues; you wouldn’t sign Kikuchi and have him start the season opener in AA. But Kikuchi is a better prospect than Tazawa was when he was 18. So Kikuchi may have a little more upside, but I don’t think he would command the same kind of offers Tazawa got. A key difference is that Tazawa had basically made up his mind to come to America by the time I started writing about him. We don’t know what Kikuchi’s plans are.

Retired Jose Canseco unable to hit a home run off of retired Kaz Sasaki

Jose Canseco was back in the batter’s box Sunday, facing former Seattle Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki before the start of a Japanese professional baseball game.

Canseco took nine pitches from Sasaki as part of a pregame ceremony at Yokohama Stadium. Canseco connected on a few pitches but none was a home run.

“His fastball and forkball haven’t changed much since he was in the major leagues,” Canseco said. “I should have practiced more.”

Canseco, who hit 462 home runs in the major leagues, is in Japan to take part in a mixed martial arts event on Tuesday. The former Oakland A’s slugger is fighting South Korean Hong Man Choi on the Dream 9 card in Yokohama Arena.

No truth to the rumor that he will star alongside Mothra in an upcoming movie.

NYT: Japanese Fans Mobilize to Keep Valentine as Their Manager

After nine innings of sustained chanting and singing, about 150 of the most loyal fans remained behind in silence with their banners raised over their heads, the Japanese characters on the 70-foot signs shouting out in protest from the right-field bleachers.

“We would rather fight with Bobby, who says we’re the world’s best fans,” one sign read, “than with a front office who calls us worthless.”

“Bobby stands behind us. We stand behind Bobby,” read another.

It was the third consecutive game in which the fans had staged this unusual protest, all part of a campaign to force the Chiba Lotte Marines to reverse course and keep Bobby Valentine, a baseball lifer from the United States, as their manager beyond the current season.

For six weeks, the fans of the Marines have been engaged in a battle with the front office over the fate of Valentine, who was told over the winter that his contract would not be renewed for financial reasons, despite his success with the team.

With more than 50,000 signatures on a petition to keep Valentine, this is a struggle, the fans believe, that goes to the heart of Japanese baseball. They see Valentine as a positive influence who is leading the team and the sport toward a more viable future by promoting more access to players and more fan-friendly marketing concepts.

At the same time, they view the current front office, led by the team president, Ryuzo Setoyama, as more interested in the status quo, under which, they contend, fans have been treated less as coveted customers and more as people expected to attend games out of a sense of duty. Although the team insists that Valentine simply makes too much money to be retained in 2010, the fans believe other factors may be in play.

Can the Zen of Bobby V survive?

New York Times: Japanese Fans Mobilize to Try to Keep Valentine as Their Manager

CHIBA, Japan — After nine innings of sustained chanting and singing, about 150 of the most loyal fans remained behind in silence with their banners raised over their heads, the Japanese characters on the 70-foot signs shouting out in protest from the right-field bleachers.

“We would rather fight with Bobby, who says we’re the world’s best fans,” one sign read, “than with a front office who calls us worthless.”

“Bobby stands behind us. We stand behind Bobby,” read another.

It was the third consecutive game that the fans had staged this unusual protest, all part of a campaign to force the Chiba Lotte Marines to reverse course and keep Bobby Valentine, a baseball lifer from America, as their manager beyond the current season.

For six weeks, the fans of the Marines have been engaged in a battle with the front office over the fate of Valentine, who was told over the winter that his contract would not be renewed for financial reasons, despite his success with the team.

With over 50,000 signatures on a petition to keep Valentine, this is a struggle, the fans believe, that goes to the heart of Japanese baseball. They see Valentine as a positive influence who is leading the team and the sport toward a more viable future by promoting more access to players and more fan-friendly marketing concepts.

At the same time, they view the current front office, led by the team president, Ryuzo Setoyama, as more interested in the old status quo, when, they contend, fans were treated less as coveted customers and more as people expected to attend games out of a sense of duty. Although the team insists that Valentine simply makes too much money to be retained in 2010, the fans believe other factors may be in play.

Thanks go to Matt S. for linking to this in today’s(05/20/09) Mets-Dodgers chatter.

Japan Times: NPB commissioner wanted to ban foreign players 25 years ago

There are 66 foreign players currently registered in Japanese pro baseball, along with two foreign managers, a farm team manager and three coaches. But, 25 years ago this month, the commissioner of Japanese baseball wanted to ban non-Japanese from playing in the Central and Pacific Leagues.

Trouble began just three days into the 1984 season, when American outfielder Jim Tracy, then of the Yokohama Taiyo Whales, suddenly quit his team after going through spring training and preparing for his second season in Japan.

Yes, he’s the same Jim Tracy who served major league tenures as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates. The country-style Tracy had enjoyed a better-than-halfway-decent first year in Japan in 1983, hitting .303 with 19 home runs and 66 RBIs, good enough to earn him a second season in Yokohama.

At 29 years of age, Tracy could have been one of those long-term foreign players in Japan with a career extended over five or six seasons. He had played briefly in the majors with the Chicago Cubs in 1980-81 and appeared to be one who had found his niche playing in Japan.

However, on Sunday of opening weekend in 1984, he suddenly announced he was leaving the team and the country. He was upset about being taken out of that third game of the year after he walked in the ninth inning of a tie game and was removed for a pinch runner by Whales manager Junzo Sekine.

Tracy later said he could not agree with the decision. His thinking was that his bat might be needed should the game go into extra innings, whereas Sekine was obviously trying to win the game in the ninth. Over that seemingly trivial difference of opinion, the player took his pride and went home.

NY Times: Seibu Lions’ Porcelain and Plastic Memorial to Matsuzaka: Plush Bathrooms (RR)

Aw, crap!!!

With the $51,111,111.11 posting fee the Lions earned from the Red Sox in the deal, they renovated the drab, outdated Seibu Dome, constructing concession stands and seating, resurfacing the playing field, installing an enormous video scoreboard and, most notably, building magnificent bathrooms with electronically warmed toilet seats.

[...]

Each stall in the women’s bathrooms holds a Toto Washlet, a toilet and bidet in one unit. These $1,500 fixtures provide a luxurious experience for fans, who may spend their time in the restrooms contemplating the full extent of Matsuzaka’s legacy with the Lions.

“It looked like a women’s room in a nice hotel with the vanities and sinks,” said Tere Garcia-Pena, visiting from Manhattan with her husband, Miguel. “It was just so nice and clean, I felt like I just wanted to keep going in there.”

Kurt Streeter: Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw shows mettle

Every so often, in the clubhouse, at a hotel, on an airplane, Dodgers pitchers Clayton Kershaw and Hiroki Kuroda will begin a conversation. In his second season of American baseball, Kuroda’s English is a work in progress. Sometimes, unsteadily groping for the right word or the proper phrase, he will turn to his interpreter for a bailout, only to be stopped.

“No, Hiroki,” Kershaw will kindly say to his older, much more accomplished teammate. “I know it’s hard, but you know the words. We’re going to speak English, you and me . . . it’ll help you get better.”

This anecdote, related by Dodgers interpreter Kenji Nimura, touches on why the odds are good Kershaw will fulfill his uncommon promise: Instead of shying from difficult moments, he views them as opportunities, chances to grow.

Nimura, the interpreter, tells it best: “He probably doesn’t know it, but he has the potential to be a really good teacher. And good teachers, they have one thing in common, they’re all great learners . . . open, aware, ready to learn from mistakes. That’s Kershaw.”

Furman Bisher:  Braves’ talent on the farm has dried up

So far, the Braves have hovered around .500, but I fear they’ve just about found their level. It’s not the pitching; it’s the run-making. The best prospect of a leadoff man was traded to Detroit, Josh Anderson, a .300 hitter with base-stealing speed and center field experience in the majors. Jordan Schafer probably would have benefited from at least a half-season in triple-A. He’s not a leadoff type. Josh Anderson is, and he’s hitting well in Detroit. There’s a problem at second base right now, but I’m a believer in Kelly Johnson. They’re suffering the loss of Brian McCann, which nobody has figured into the equation. And Chipper Jones can be handled — just don’t pitch to him.

We saw an illustration while the Cardinals were in town of how a bad deal can draw blood over the years. The Braves didn’t simply trade Adam Wainwright to get J.D. Drew for a year, but they also threw in Jason Marquis, now a $9.8-million starter in Colorado. That deal will be haunting this team for years, as will the deal that sent five golden talents to Texas for a season of Mark Teixeira — who, as a Yankee, is currently hitting more than l00 points below Casey Kotchman. Three are on the Rangers roster and a fourth, pitcher Neftali Feliz, may be the best of them all, Bobby Cox said. Right now he’s tuning up on the Oklahoma City farm.

Gone are the rich old farm days that gave us John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, Mercker, Stanton, Wohlers, Lemke, Blauser, Chipper … a bumper crop of farm products. Just pick up the phone and call Richmond. Now, it’s just a matter of calling a cab in Lawrenceville — if there’s any help there to be called for.

Hello, Hideki

The Long Beach Armada of the independent professional Golden Baseball League (GBL) have announced that they have agreed to terms with former Major League pitcher and Japan Professional Baseball (NPB) League superstar Hideki Irabu on a player contract for the 2009 season. Irabu became the greatest power pitcher in professional baseball history in Japan before coming to the U.S. in the mid 90s and winning two World Series titles with the New York Yankees.

“Hideki Irabu is a tremendous addition to our pitching staff,” said Long Beach Armada Manager Garry Templeton. “I’m looking forward to the skill, experience, and professionalism that a player of his caliber will bring to the club and believe that this will be a great place for him to demonstrate that he is ready to return to the top levels of the game here or in Japan.”

It is now official: He’ll be in the same rotation as Jose Lima! Big Fat Toad and Lima Time!

Hat tip to Deadspin.

MLB: Rhodes reaches 450 homers in Japan

It’s the unagi.

Tuffy Rhodes is best known in the United States for hitting three home runs off Dwight Gooden on Opening Day in 1994 while playing for the Cubs. Sunday, halfway across the world from Wrigley Field, Rhodes had another memorable three-homer performance on his way to becoming the first American-born Japanese professional player to amass 450 career long balls.

Rhodes hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to become just the 12th Japanese professional player to reach the 450-home run mark. He added a three-run homer in the fifth and a two-run shot in the eighth to help lead his Orix Buffaloes to an 11-3 drubbing of the Nippon Ham Fighters.

The 40-year-old Rhodes, who is in his 13th season in Japan, now leads all active players there with 452 career long balls. Tomoaki Kanemoto of the Hanshin Tigers ranks second with 429.

NBP tracker: 2009 NPB Team Payroll Ranking

This ranking is based on calculating information from Daily Sports Online, and converting into US dollars at the April 24 dollar-yen exchange rate from Google Finace. The numbers are based on the start of the 2009 season. I hope this will be interesting and insightful for new NPB fans to learn how much Japanese teams pay their players.

The Yomiuri Giants is the highest at $45.30 million, and the lowest is the Hiroshima Toyo Carp at $17.71 million.

Chart in link.

Verducci: Will Dice-K suffer the same fate as past Japanese flameouts?

The Red Sox can blame the World Baseball Classic all they want for the shoulder fatigue of right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, and to a certain degree, they do have a point. It wasn’t so much that Matsuzaka threw 65, 86 and 98 pitches in his three WBC starts—with seven and six days of rest between his second and third starts, respectively. That workload is not excessive.

What concerned the Red Sox even before those starts was that the club had no control over Matsuzaka’s training regimen. After throwing 408 innings and pitching deep into the postseason two straight years—when Boston wanted to give his body more recovery time, as Tampa Bay did with its starters coming off a long 2008 season—Matsuzaka reported not to Boston’s camp but to Japan’s WBC camp on Feb. 15. The club’s attempts to monitor his throwing program were futile, giving way to Japan’s national fervor to win another WBC.

The Red Sox, however, better hope it is only the WBC that caused Matsuzaka’s fatigue. When Boston placed him on the disabled list, I thought not only about the WBC, but also about a story I did about Matsuzaka prior to the 2007 season, his first in the majors after a distinguished, and grueling, career in Japan. What stuck with me is how both the Red Sox and Scott Boras, the agent for Matsuzaka, were concerned about the ominous track record of Japanese starting pitchers when they jump to the big leagues. Both the club and the agent knew about a pattern in which Japanese starters have success in the majors for a year or two, but wear down in years three and four.

“The greatest concern is ensuring his health,” Boras said then, “not just this year but over the life of the contract and beyond. The history of the Japanese [starting] pitchers who have come here is concerning.”

And no, I did not pay off Verducci to write something to try and deflect some of the blame away from the WBC. I don’t know about Selig though.

npbtracker: Irabu Comeback in the Works

Hat tip to the unintentionally prophetic EWC: Nikkan Sports is reporting noted fat toad Hideki Irabu is working out in LA and aiming to resume his career in the US independent leagues some time this season. The article says that he’s played in amateur games and is hitting 90 mph on the gun in his workouts. There’s also a lengthy quote from someone associated with Irabu:

That he’s aiming for a comeback is true. Because he’s gotten back into shape, he came to want play again. He’s playing with a cheerful demeanor. He wants to get tryouts and find a club he can play for. He’s looking to make a comeback in the independent leagues during the season. Looking to the future, the thinking is that if possible he wants to return to a high level, like MLB or NPB.

I wonder if that’s Don Nomura talking.

For Isao Harimoto, the record stands

As Japan’s longtime, solitary 3,000-hit man, Harimoto is obviously an icon of the country’s game. However, behind his hallowed record is an even more fascinating life.
[...]
As a 4-year old, he was playing outside near a fire built to warm the evening air when a truck suddenly started backing up in his direction. As he scampered to avoid danger, Harimoto’s right hand was thrust into the flames. Severe burns left him permanently injured with limited mobility in his thumb and forefinger and nearly no use of his curled middle, ring and pinkie fingers. The natural-born right-hander was forced to become a lefty. As his interest in baseball began to flourish, that meant teaching himself to bat from the left side and throw with his left hand.

“These three fingers are essential to gripping the bat,” Harimoto says with emotion, all the while careful to conceal from sight the damaged fingers of his right hand that still limit him today. “Mine are completely useless. I guess I’m blessed in that they’re bent in a way that a stick-like object can be slid in between them. As a kid, I feverishly practiced swinging the bat with just my right hand. It was weak, and I had to somehow teach it to become useful.”

And then things got worse…

yahoo:  Banzai! Japanese dollmaker turns Ichiro into samurai warrior

“Japanese doll maker Kyugetsu unveils a samurai doll of Seattle Mariners slugger Ichiro Suzuki at the company’s showroom in Tokyo on April 16, 2009 to be displayed at the Children’s Day on May 5, to celebrate the Boy’s Festival. In Japanese tradition, parents decorate samurai dolls with the earnest wish that their children may grow up to be healthy and robust.”

MLB: Griffey hits 400th home run in a M’s uniform as Ichiro ties Japan hit record with Grand Slam

...and yet neither of these things were as noteworthy or unlikely as when Junior went back-to-back on homers with ENDY CHAVEZ.

Needless to say, it was probably the greatest game of all time.

This was a night of milestone moments:

• Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 400th career home run in a Mariners uniform, a solo shot in the fifth inning.

• Left-hander Jarrod Washburn had a sore throat but pitched six innings and won his 100th career game.

• And Ichiro matched the record for most hits by a Japanese player with a grand slam in a seven-run seventh inning, his 3,085th professional hit.

The home run matched the Japan record held since 1981 by Isao Harimoto, who traveled from Japan to watch Ichiro reach the record.

One more reason to love Ichiro: when a reporter asked him after the game whether “Pete Rose’s record might be next?,” he responded by saying (and I quote) “HA! You must be bad at math.”

East of Havana: Buh-Bye Baseball Streak

This week is a melancholic week for Cuban baseball — and I’d venture to say Cuban morale. Their 50 year winning streak is OVER. Dead in the water. It happened at Petco park on Wednesday night. Japan beat the Cubans in the World Baseball Classic, eliminating Cuba before a major international tournament’s final game for the first time in 50 years.

One of Cuba’s biggest exports is baseball. Whatever turmoil they might experience politically, it all gets eclipsed a few times a year by the glorious victories that annually show the world another sort of dominance — the superiority of a man on a field. Pure and honest.

Old news, I know. But the link has some fantastic photos of Cuban baseball, and Fidel Castro wearing a baseball uniform. Definitely, for fans of history.

NBP tracker: Darvish Reaching Ichiro Status

Yu Darvish is approaching Ichiro status in Japan. However, this time it’s not on the baseball field, but inside classrooms. He will be featured in the new edition of an English textbook, “Earthliner 09-10″, which is mainly used in high schools in Japan. Every edition of the textbook features a different public figure who has been active internationally and Darvish will be the second baseball player used after Ichiro.

A comment from the publisher states: “Darvish is popular figure with high school kids with thier similarity in age. He has made a name for himself in international competitions such as the Olympics and the WBC.”

Ichiro has bleeding ulcer, goes on 15-day DL

Cue people blaming the WBC in 5.. 4… 3.. 2… 1....

WBC stars Darvish, Iwakuma to start 2009 Japan baseball season

A general short preview of the upcoming NPB season.

Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma combined last month to help Japan win the World Baseball Classic. On Friday they’ll be competing against each other as Japan opens its 2009 regular season.

...
Iwakuma, 27, who won 21 games last season for the Rakuten Eagles, attracted the interest of major league scouts at the tournament and will be looking to help the Eagles improve on their fifth-place finish last season.

Darvish, 22, entering his fifth season as a member of the Nippon Ham Fighters, also made a name for his himself at the WBC and will be on the radar of major league teams for years to come. Widely regarded as the best pitcher in Japan, Darvish had 16 wins last season for the Fighters.

Former New York Yankees pitcher Darrell Rasner will join Iwakuma in the starting rotation for the Eagles. Rasner signed a one-year contract with the Eagles after being released by the Yankees after the 2008 season.

Among the other storylines the article brings up is Valentine’s final year, Tuffy Rhodes (who has now been in Japan so long that he no longer officially counts as a Gaijin) and Kevin Mench (who will help the Hanshin Tigers prove that the Curse of the Colonel is over).