The World Baseball Classic 2009

The World Baseball Classic is in full swing as teams are getting the boot as well as gettin’ ahead. Since the 5th of March, Chinese Taipei, China and Panama have all been eliminated from the classic as Korea, Japan and the United States have all secured a spot in the second round of pool play.

Thus far the classic has not disappointed as blow out’s and one-run games have both occurred in a number of instances. Tonight’s action features Puerto Rico v. Netherlands at 6:30 PM ET, Italy v. Canada also at 6:30PM ET and Mexico v. South Africa at 10:00 PM ET. The loser of the Mexico – South Africa and Italy – Canada games will be eliminated from the tournament as the winner of the Puerto Rico – Netherlands game will secure a spot for the second round.

As for team USA, their next game is set up for Wednesday, March 11th, and will determine the Pool C ‘winner’. USA won their first game against Canada 6-5, and blew-out Venezuela 15-6, securing them a spot in the next round of play along with giving them a few days rest as the rest of the pool sorts out. To date, there is only one pool winner being Korea of Pool A along with Japan qualifying with the #2 spot in the pool.

It will surely be an interesting week for the classic since teams still need to be cut for the next round of action. I anxiously await to see how this will pan out, however, my excitement isn’t nearly as great as seeing the classic come to a close as the MLB gets rolling onto another great year of Baseball.