The WBC Marches On

The World Baseball Classic is still in “Pool Play” and there are some interesting results to date.  There are eight teams that are undefeated so far:

1. Cuba – – not a huge surprise
2. Dominican Republic – – former WBC Champion
3. Italy – – surprise?
4. Japan – – defending champ
5. Mexico – – OK
6. Puerto Rico – – lots of good players come from here
7. Venezuela  – – surprise?
8.  USA – – no surprise.

And of course there are also five winless teams:

1. Brazil – – baseball is not soccer
2. Colombia – – borders on Brazil – – and on Venezuela
3. Czechia – – no surprise
4. Great Britain – – baseball is not cricket
5. Nicaragua – – surprise

Baseball is an American invention, but it has obviously spread abroad particularly to Latin America and of course to Japan.

When you go to the ballpark to watch a game in person, you need to pay attention because it is possible that you will see something that you’ve never seen before – – or even something that has not happened before.  There may have been a melt-down of similar proportion somewhere in a baseball game in the past, but certainly not in my memory.  The US beat Brazil 15-5 in a WBC game that saw the Brazil pitching staff give up 17 walks.  That is the sort of thing you might expect to see in a high school game where the best pitcher on one of the teams has the flu and can’t suit up; so, the coach has his backup second baseman on the mound.  Wow …

Meanwhile, five teams have earned a slot in March Madness with plenty more conference tournaments on tap for this week.  Already in the field – – and presumably practicing for their first encounter – – are:

1. High Point
2. Long Island University
3. Northern Iowa
4. Queens (NC)
5. Tennessee State.

The play-in games for March Madness start on 17 March.  Should the Iona Gaels qualify, the seeding mavens should have them playing on St. Patrick’s Day, right?

And the NFL has entered free agent season with news/rumors of major trades and potential player releases.  Maxx Crosby and Trent McDuffie are both All-Pro level players and they have been traded in this offseason for draft picks.  Rumors abound that Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa are about to be released from large contracts making them free agents.  Both QBs have been disappointing after signing those big deals and it will be interesting to see if either gets an offer better than a short-term deal heavily incentivized.  And of course, no one knows yet what Aaron Rodgers’ plan for the 2026 NFL season might be.  Last year, he dragged that soap opera on until the start of mandatory minicamp.

I think the Trey Hendrickson situation will be interesting to watch.  According to reports, his status with the Bengals is definitely over and he is unrestricted.  He has recorded double-digit sacks in 4 seasons – – BUT – – he is 31 years old and missed 10 games due to injury last season.

Another interesting one could be Malik Willis.  He has been in the NFL for 4 seasons and has started a total of 6 games.  Only one stat jumps out at you; in the last two seasons with the Packers, Willis completed 70 of his 89 pass attempts – – 78.7%.  That is a small sample size to be sure, but what is interesting is that some reports say he could get an offer for 2 or 3 seasons for somewhere between $35-50M.

Finally, as Dorothy Parker once observed:

“You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………