King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Japan wins the world baseball championship of the whole wide world, so take that, Chicago. Plus: Alfonso Soriano, refusenik.

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March 21, 2006 | Oh, great, they're saying in Tampa. The Devil Rays are finally going to win the World Series this year, and we're going to get guff for calling them the world champions.

OK, maybe they're not saying that, but the world champions of baseball are not the Chicago White Sox but your Japan, uh, Japanese Guys.

Japan beat Cuba 10-6 in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic Monday night in San Diego in a game that -- hang on a second, Cuba manager Higinio Velez is changing pitchers again.

The Japanese caught a break in the second round when Mexico surprised the United States, punching Japan's ticket to the final four, where their brand of scientific baseball -- throwing strikes, moving runners along, hitting to the opposite field, stealing bases, throwing to the cutoff man, that sort of thing -- finally prevailed over Korea, which had beaten Japan twice, and the Cubans, kings of international baseball.

It was fitting that this tournament, which turned out to be a really fun event, reached its finale without the Americans being involved, except as spectators. As we've discussed, this wasn't meant for us, even though most of it was played in our ballparks. It was meant to get that part of the world not excited about baseball excited about baseball.

Don't know if that worked, if fantasy drafts are raging across Italy, South Africa and the Netherlands, but those ballparks in California, Arizona and Florida were filled with Dominicans, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Mexicans, Japanese and Venezuelans, among others, who were already plenty excited about baseball and who approach international sports in a whole different way from how Yanks approach it.

That is, they care about it. A lot. And that's why it was good that the U.S. got bounced. Which would you have rather watched, Japan's boisterous celebration or one by the Americans?

I suspect that would have been more like a New York Yankees celebration of a division title: "Nice job, fellas. That's what was supposed to happen." I can't picture Derek Jeter and Co. tossing manager Buck Martinez into the air the way the Japanese did with Sadaharu Oh.

We Americans mostly only care about international competitions we're supposed to win. And then we get all petulant if we don't win, though the nation didn't seem able to muster much dudgeon over Team USA's lackluster showing in the WBC.

We have our own championships to worry about. I know some people consider this attitude some kind of moral failing but I don't.

It's not as though our greater interest in the World Series, say, than international competition represents some sort of xenophobia. The White Sox won the World Series last year with a Venezuelan manager and important players from Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan and whatever planet Carl Everett comes from.

And where do you think most of those fans who went to the games and waved Korean, Japanese, Cuban and Dominican flags live?

Next page: It's OK, ChiSox, you can be world champs too. Plus: Alfonso Soriano will not go