Wow, what an unexpected surprise the WBC turned out to be, especially for Japan. After Mexico beat the US to enable Japan to advance to the semi-finals against Korea, interest in the WBC surged in Japan.
The game against Korea on March 19 was pretty exciting, and extra sweet since Japan had lost to Korea twice before. But the final game against Cuba was even more exciting since Cuba was formidable. Japan did so well under pressure. Imagine if Cuba had won though. The little country beating the US at their own game on their own turf would have been a public relations coup for Fidel.
I admire Sadaharu Oh and Ichiro for being so positive about the whole thing from the start, even though there was some risk involved. They knew how important it was for baseball in Japan and the world for this very first true World Series to succeed. Despite major disagreement among players as to when the WBC should be held, and the non-participation of big-name players like Hideki Matsui, the WBC turned out to be successful. It certainly raised international awareness of how well Asian teams can play. This success has silenced the naysayers to the WBC. It also put the US major leaguers to shame. As one major leaguer said, you never know what will happen in baseball.
It’s great that people now see the WBC as a viable sports event. Next time, hopefully more top players (and team owners) will take the WBC seriously enough to participate. I think this is the start of a good thing, especially when baseball is no longer an Olympic sport.
I was lucky enough see the first game Team Japan played in the WBC. It was on March 3 at Tokyo Dome against China (Japan won). I was a little disappointed that the Dome was not full. There was a good crowd, but a lot of empty seats too. Maybe they should have lowered the prices. My ticket cost 16,000 yen which I thought was too much. (A friend gave me free tickets.) The main attraction was of course Ichiro. If it weren’t for him, the crowd would’ve been much less I’m sure.
See my photos of the game here.