Huh???

OK, so, I can't help myself and papa won't let it rest until we get this off our chests. Korea is up 1-0 in the final game of the first round of the World Baseball Classic this evening. 8th inning, 1 out and Ichiro singles. With the meat of the order coming up, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th batters, the manager of the Japan team, Tatsunori Hara (roughly translated means "Freakishly Asinine"), inexplicably calls a sacrifice bunt...huh??? What was he thinking? Did he learn baseball from a video game? Or from "Baseball for Extreme Dummies"? Is that a meatball that he uses for a head? Sure, he gets Ichiro in scoring position, but at the expense of sacrificing a batter who's hitting .500, followed by a .364 hitter, and he guarantees himself 2 outs. I may be a Jack Russell Terrier, but even I know stupidity when I see it.

Then he switches pitchers. Darvish, a natural starter during the regular season, came in fresh as a reliever in the 8th and struck out the side. Again, inexplicably, the manager changes pitchers and Japan barely survived the top of the 9th, only managing to get out of the inning with a very lucky double play.

If Japan wins the WBC this time, it will be due to the skill of the team despite Hara. If they lose...well...Hara-Kiri??? :-)

Funny thing...none of the post-game sports casts that I saw showed the bunt. I feel like I'm living in a controlled news environment like North Korea...

Have mercy...

We've been watching the World Baseball Classic for the past few days. Japan looks strong again! I'm hoping for a repeat of the 2006 WBC! Yesterday, Japan crushed Korea 14-2. It was a massacre. I couldn't even bear witness to the bloodshed...

It was the first time in Major League baseball that I've seen the mercy rule applied after 7 innings. Who even knew there was such a thing??? Papa mentioned something about Little League rules...

But it was the right thing to do putting Korea out of its misery. Funny thing is that Korea came back today and blew China away 14-0, and again the mercy rule was applied after the top of the 7th when China failed to score. Papa is not a fan of the mercy rule. These are professionals, not children...well...actually they quite often act like children...and whine like children...and they're very, very selfish...and they like to yell and scream at umpires when they don't get their way...OK, OK, so perhaps there is a need for the mercy rule after all :-)

It's been raining almost all week. I was wishing I could go outside but papa wouldn't walk me in the cold, slushy rain. Wimp. He was pretty disappointed that his golf day was canceled today. Me? I'm just longing to go outside...

So I just sleep in...

...and watch papa cook...

...and then sleep some more...

Today, mama and papa said I stink so papa gave me my monthly bath...and then he brushed my teeth...but when he tried to clean my ears, well, that was the last straw, so I found a safe place and waited him out. Eventually he relented and I was able to escape alive with my dirty ears in tact. Tomorrow will be another day. But for today, I'm safe and happy and feeling pretty good about myself!
So happy in fact, that I have had some extra energy to burn off...

And now it's bed time!!! Oyasumi nasai!!!