David Truly Beats Goliath

I won't be able to do so much live-blogging for the current matches, but if you got to see the Netherlands upset the heavy favorite Dominican Republic 3-2, it was a hell of a game; and for guys like me who love underdogs, greatly exciting.

Some may claim the World Baseball Classic is unnecessary because we already know who has the best players; but this game along with Japan winning in 2006 proves otherwise. The Netherlands is a country most people don't even know have a baseball league, let alone playing baseball at all, and they held their own and beat a team stacked with Major League top talent in the Dominican Republic.

The most notable thing over the past few opening days of WBC competition is learing about all the other baseball leagues out there. Clearly the MLB and NPB are the top 2, but watching the Netherlands' Rob Cordemans shut down the Dominican lineup was great... Then we find out however that he had a 9-0 record and .8 ERA last year and is a 5-time KNBSB (Netherlands' baseball league) MVP; it starts to make you realize the legitimacy of those leagues.

In fact, the majority (if not all) of the rosters for Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Australia, Chinese Taipei, China, South Africa, Italy & Cuba come from leagues in their own countries, and two of them (Japan & Cuba) were the finalists in 2006. 2006 may have been a matter of surprise, but now all the countries filled with MLB players have had time to prepare; and we still got an upset of gigantic proportions; the Dominican Republic were supposed to win this whole thing, and simply put, they got shut down this morning by great Dutch pitching.

The only question, what happens if the Netherlands lose their 2nd round game and rematch with DR? I can imagine the Dominican Republic will be ready for some revenge...