Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Batflips and Nerds, the Baseball Podcast
Speaker 1: with a British twist. I am Darius Austin and we
Speaker 1: are back with more hot WBC content. And who better
Speaker 1: to bring us that content than our man in Houston
Speaker 1: live in the stadium is Russell Lison. Russell, how is
Speaker 1: it going.
Speaker 2: It's going good. It is the field day to day.
Speaker 3: I can maybe briefly turn this around and you can
Speaker 3: see that Team Canada have arrived and are having their
Speaker 3: warm ups. They're going to take the field for the
Speaker 3: next ninety minutes. So probably while we'll having this conversation,
Speaker 3: you might hear some hits, although you'll probably just hear
Speaker 3: the blaring music that still goes in the stadium even
Speaker 3: when no one is actually here to listen to it
Speaker 3: apart from the players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I sat.
Speaker 1: I hadn't really thought about that, but it is quite
Speaker 1: incredible that they're still blaring the sound system when there's
Speaker 1: nobody there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I guess the teams get to choose their music, and
Speaker 3: the only way for them to hear it is it's
Speaker 3: over the whole entire sound system.
Speaker 1: Incredible. Well, we should probably have an extended rant about
Speaker 1: how sports venues are too loud these days. But we
Speaker 1: won't do that because there's lots of baseball to talk about,
Speaker 1: and the group stages are over that they've concluded. We
Speaker 1: have a quarter final lineup. But I think before we
Speaker 1: talk about all the other groups, I guess I guess
Speaker 1: we should start with with Paul B and we should
Speaker 1: start with Team GB, who have again successfully qualified for
Speaker 1: the next WBC. So, Russ, I imagine you've spent an
Speaker 1: awful lot of time with the team over the last
Speaker 1: few days, and I think it was a great performance
Speaker 1: against Brazil. I think maybe people were, you know, following along,
Speaker 1: almost surprised to fe relatively relaxed during that game because
Speaker 1: it was it was mostly under control. That's what it
Speaker 1: felt like to me.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Yeah, we'll go in reverse and we'll start with
Speaker 3: that game. I think that what GB had shown well
Speaker 3: at last periods of the entire tournament in that game
Speaker 3: is that they pitched well. They had a few moments
Speaker 3: in all of the games, and even like the wm
Speaker 3: A game in Brazil, they did give up that first
Speaker 3: run and you were like, okay, GB has to score,
Speaker 3: which is a little bit of a we know what's
Speaker 3: been struggled for a bit of the tournament, but justin
Speaker 3: wildly hitting that home run in Lewis Junior hitting the
Speaker 3: home run to tie it straight back upto one and
Speaker 3: then getting ahead once that had happened. I think after
Speaker 3: watching Brazil play their games against Mexico, were playing their
Speaker 3: games against Italy, they hadn't really looked that strong offensively,
Speaker 3: but they picked up five runs against the US, including
Speaker 3: Lucas Schremiraz going deep twice. But they really kind of
Speaker 3: like ruggled offensively for most of those games, and GM
Speaker 3: kind of stepped it up from then and as that
Speaker 3: game just progressed, it did get more and more to
Speaker 3: the point where you were like, yeah, you know what,
Speaker 3: like gbre better, are better than Brazil And that result
Speaker 3: did show out to do that, and yeah, the qualification
Speaker 3: for the next tournament is massive. Repeatability is a huge
Speaker 3: thing with funding with sport in the UK, So getting
Speaker 3: that and getting that actually the chance to happen again
Speaker 3: it is a great thing. As next things that they'll
Speaker 3: move on to, which will probably talk about the points
Speaker 3: with the Premier sort of qualifying at the end of
Speaker 3: the year. But it was a great result in the end,
Speaker 3: and I think it was the first time they probably
Speaker 3: really put an entire performance together.
Speaker 2: The games against Mexico, Italy and the USA.
Speaker 3: They were strong at times, they were capable holding in
Speaker 3: with those teams, but each time that they let get
Speaker 3: away from them by they conceded like more than one
Speaker 3: run in basically every evening that they actually conceded runs
Speaker 3: in those first three games, So they really struggled to
Speaker 3: put out the fires once it started to go slightly wrong,
Speaker 3: which will be a learning point I think for how
Speaker 3: they come at this again in the tournament's times afterwards.
Speaker 3: But seeing how Italy performed against USA and Mexico afterwards,
Speaker 3: US having losing that game seven four is not as
Speaker 3: bad as it like, I think, looking at it respectively,
Speaker 3: it's actually a much fairer like reflection where like GBR.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was wondering about that actually and being around
Speaker 1: the guys, what sense was there of missed opportunity in
Speaker 1: some of those games they did They come off the
Speaker 1: field thinking we could have actually won those and we
Speaker 1: just you know, things didn't quite break our way at
Speaker 1: the right moments, you know, we if we'd had a
Speaker 1: lucky hit or here or there earlier in the game,
Speaker 1: It could have been very different. Did they really feel
Speaker 1: like they could have come away from this tournament with
Speaker 1: more than one win?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so.
Speaker 3: I think Brad spoken the post pest customs is in
Speaker 3: most of the games, saying the like, we didn't execute
Speaker 3: one hundred percent like in all of those games. So
Speaker 3: GV knows that they aren't the same caliber of team.
Speaker 3: The USA team is an all star team. The Mexico
Speaker 3: team has MLB talent throughout that whole entire lineup and
Speaker 3: has MLB talent on the pitching. Italy has mostly MLB
Speaker 3: level team or a lot of Quad A players. Jimi
Speaker 3: doesn't quite have that same depth. But they Yeah, they
Speaker 3: just didn't quite take some of the moments they had.
Speaker 3: They left men on the bases in both the Mexico
Speaker 3: and Italy games that could have really kind of pushed
Speaker 3: the momentum back into kind of like their favor. The
Speaker 3: decision I think to pull Nia Victor in the USA
Speaker 3: game and bring in scrub I think that's one that
Speaker 3: Brad has has said that kind of like maybe given
Speaker 3: the chance to twenty twenty high sight to go back,
Speaker 3: he might have like led him kind of like continue
Speaker 3: on and see what it was going, but he wanted
Speaker 3: to switch from like a left right picture to a
Speaker 3: like a not south pitcher to kind of.
Speaker 2: To go with that. But like it didn't work. GB.
Speaker 3: We're going to have to play at like ninety nine
Speaker 3: percentile and hope that those other teams were playing somewhere
Speaker 3: in their bottom quarter percentile, and I think in all
Speaker 3: of those games they ended up playing in seventy eighty
Speaker 3: percentile sort of territory.
Speaker 2: It just it wasn't.
Speaker 3: Quite there, And if we're honest, like Jazz wasn't quite there.
Speaker 3: Like he was added to this lineup hoping to be
Speaker 3: like the person that could add power, add stolen bases,
Speaker 3: be a talent's man, but we didn't really have a
Speaker 3: great tournament, going over four in the game against USA,
Speaker 3: I think with the golden sombrero was was not what
Speaker 3: team GB needed in those games. But yeah, I think
Speaker 3: you can't underestimate the impact that he had on the
Speaker 3: rest of the squad and the team being pulled together.
Speaker 3: But when it came to when it came to the games,
Speaker 3: you didn't have like the got the RBI and a
Speaker 3: couple of singles in the end to kind of to
Speaker 3: help GB get through Brazil. But you didn't get that
Speaker 3: the any moment that Pasquentino got yesterday where after going
Speaker 3: over twelve wilid Ley were winning three, hitting three home
Speaker 3: runs to be the first person then to do that
Speaker 3: in the WDC game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, well let's talk about Italy. Maybe the biggest shock
Speaker 1: of the group stage is that Italy have topped Paul
Speaker 1: b after beating the USA eight six, and then and
Speaker 1: coming back out the next night and as you say,
Speaker 1: Vinnie hitting three home runs to help them beat Mexico
Speaker 1: and fortunately let the US still advance through to the quarterfinals.
Speaker 1: Who how did you did you were you surprised by
Speaker 1: that having watched them play their first two games, or
Speaker 1: did you think that there was that potential foreign upset
Speaker 1: because there is, as you say, it's still a lot
Speaker 1: of major league talent on this roster.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it's always an interesting way that like how
Speaker 3: teams can build up, Like Italy's schedule was Brazil, GB, USA, Mexico,
Speaker 3: so they kind of had the chance to build themselves
Speaker 3: into the tournament, get two wins against potentially the favorable matchups,
Speaker 3: and then really go for it in against USA and Mexico.
Speaker 3: It allowed them to kind of they lined up their
Speaker 3: best pitchers in Lorenzo and Mola in those two games,
Speaker 3: and to be honest, USA and Mexico made Lorenzo and
Speaker 3: Aaron Nola looked like Tarrek Skouble and Paul Skins like
Speaker 3: even though they were going pitching in different games. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's still shock, still shocked that Italy kind of like
Speaker 3: won those games. Because if the CESSPECTUS Barbecue Boys said
Speaker 3: it in a tweet, which I think perfectly kind of
Speaker 3: signs it up. It's like the junior team beating the
Speaker 3: varsity team, like because all those Italian Americans could have
Speaker 3: been on that on that team, Roman Antony chose to
Speaker 3: be on the USA team instead of potentially being on
Speaker 3: on the Italy team.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's definitely a shock.
Speaker 3: But I think Italy and probably Mexico to a certain
Speaker 3: extent of not playing within the same limitations that the
Speaker 3: US has. Like this is something that other people need
Speaker 3: to remember that although this is a great international tournament
Speaker 3: and it is becoming a bigger and bigger thing, all
Speaker 3: these players are on restrictions from their teams, and so
Speaker 3: these top top players are probably on the worst restrictions
Speaker 3: out of everybody. I think people can complain about the
Speaker 3: Rosi's handling of the games, but he was pretty much
Speaker 3: hamstrung to be like, these people can pitch on these
Speaker 3: days and they can do this much. And he had
Speaker 3: to basically bring people in at certain times and not
Speaker 3: bring other people in at certain times.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 3: It was the way of having those players available meant
Speaker 3: that he didn't have the ability to just pick and
Speaker 3: choose as he wanted. It was a lot more like
Speaker 3: here are my jugs or pieces, and I have to
Speaker 3: kind of like fit them together instead of being just
Speaker 3: being able to kind of like throw who he ever wanted.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I think if you had lined it
Speaker 3: up correctly, I don't think you would have put tarik
Speaker 3: schouble against GB. You would probably should have pitched Tarik's
Speaker 3: schooble against Italy. That's what costs them kind of like
Speaker 3: winning that game. But they're still into the into the
Speaker 3: now to the knockouts. They're the game against Canada now,
Speaker 3: which everybody on the USA team will be thinking is
Speaker 3: a game that they should be winning, and given how
Speaker 3: the system is set up, they have a potential path
Speaker 3: to the to the final, where they'll well they'll play.
Speaker 2: Japan more than likely, but who knows.
Speaker 3: Obviously they'll have to play either of South Korea or
Speaker 3: Dominican Republic first before hitting and out on that other side.
Speaker 1: And what was the atmosphere like in that Italy US
Speaker 1: game in terms of, you know, the balance inside the stadium.
Speaker 1: Was there a lot of shock amongst the crowd. Did
Speaker 1: you get a sense of that from where you were.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the atmosphere was pretty pretty amazing for a lot
Speaker 3: of these games. The the USA Itarly match was was
Speaker 3: was weird because obviously, like Illy got ahead and attacked
Speaker 3: him on and attacked more and more on. When Pta
Speaker 3: hit the three home run, this crowd was electric. I
Speaker 3: think people still thought that they were gonna this is
Speaker 3: like the start of like the comeback, and it was
Speaker 3: building up, and it was building up, and it was
Speaker 3: building up, and having like Judge up to bat in
Speaker 3: the ninth being like the tying run, I think a
Speaker 3: lot of people here were expecting that, like, Okay, here's
Speaker 3: a he's a he's a judge WBC moment, He's gonna
Speaker 3: take a yard and like either take this game to
Speaker 3: extras or kind of like help USA win it in
Speaker 3: the sinnings and it didn't happen. It got struck out
Speaker 3: by I'm trying to remember. I think it was Greg Weisser.
Speaker 2: It was Greg Weser. Yeah, yeah, So it's.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, you know what, like relievers in Major League Baseball,
Speaker 3: like they're all good in a very short period of time,
Speaker 3: so they all have appitch or something.
Speaker 2: Think that it's a little bit unusual.
Speaker 3: That's why their major league like relievers and short sample
Speaker 3: it can go their way, and it did. But no,
Speaker 3: like the USA Mexico game was utterly phenomenal when it
Speaker 3: comes to atmosphere wise, just it's probably i want to say,
Speaker 3: like sixty forty Mexico to USA fans, but they were
Speaker 3: both very loud, Like you honestly like couldn't tell who
Speaker 3: was like the whole or the away team. It was
Speaker 3: like there were moments where the USA fans are massive,
Speaker 3: there are moments when the fans for Mexico were allowed.
Speaker 3: And yeah, the only difference I'll say is that like
Speaker 3: the Mexico fans are like constantly loud, and the USA
Speaker 3: fans were allowed in the moments like when like USA
Speaker 3: did something or when it was the time for when
Speaker 3: something happened for Team USA. But no, but Houston has
Speaker 3: hosted some pretty epic games, even like the GB versus
Speaker 3: USA game had great atmosphere. There was times when on
Speaker 3: the big screens it would like to show a British
Speaker 3: fan and they are like massive booze, and then it
Speaker 3: would show like an American fan and there are massive cheers.
Speaker 2: It really worked well.
Speaker 3: And the stadiums had the roof on for the whole
Speaker 3: entire time I've been here. It's actually open right now,
Speaker 3: which is the first time I've seen the stadium open
Speaker 3: because it's been a pretty pretty wet actually a week
Speaker 3: or so out here in Houston, so they've had the
Speaker 3: roof closed to make sure that we don't get any
Speaker 3: reinde lace. So keeping that sound in it does feel
Speaker 3: pretty electrid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine. I guess we should. We should
Speaker 1: talk about a pool A because that is where these teams
Speaker 1: are going. So Italy have earned themselves again against Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico in the quarterfinals and as you said, to USA
Speaker 1: playing Canada who won that pool. So pretty impressive performance
Speaker 1: from the Canadian team all around, I think, and certainly
Speaker 1: did well to come out of that. I think when
Speaker 1: we were talking about it, before this ornament, we said
Speaker 1: this is a group that you know, several teams could
Speaker 1: stake a claim to Canada there wanted and it so
Speaker 1: how impressive you've been with what they've done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you do have to say the Canada
Speaker 3: winning that group was a shot going into the tournament.
Speaker 3: It's not I don't think something what we expected. Maybe
Speaker 3: seeing the Puerto Rican team and lineup that they eventually
Speaker 3: managed to put together due to various insurance, injury and
Speaker 3: cannabis reasons means that it isn't as a standout of
Speaker 3: as a Puerto Rico lineup as it could be. Obviously,
Speaker 3: still has Edwin Diaz closing when they need to, but
Speaker 3: you kind of need to score the runs to to
Speaker 3: kind of go against that. They only conceded seven runs
Speaker 3: in all of their games that they pitched Puerto Rico,
Speaker 3: but they only scored fifteen across the four So that's
Speaker 3: going to be their what they're going to struggle with,
Speaker 3: like in the games that they come up against. Of
Speaker 3: their game against Italy will be be amazing, but no Canada.
Speaker 3: They ended up with a three in one record with
Speaker 3: losing to Panama, who the team that finished bottom of
Speaker 3: the group tells you everything you need to know. I
Speaker 3: think about this group, it was these groups ended up
Speaker 3: slightly lopsided. But it's very hard to do that properly,
Speaker 3: like an international sport at all, not just were like baseball,
Speaker 3: because you do things predicting on like performances three or
Speaker 3: so years ago and how you kind of pull things together.
Speaker 2: But yeah, now this.
Speaker 3: Canadian team, a lot of them played in the WBC
Speaker 3: back in twenty twenty three, and I think that experience
Speaker 3: shone through in some of those games, and then obviously
Speaker 3: getting performances out of Paxton like they did like in
Speaker 3: those in those final games to actually kind of get them,
Speaker 3: get them through, get them over the line. He got
Speaker 3: pulled on forty nine pitches, so he's still theoretically like
Speaker 3: available to pitch like in the in the rest of
Speaker 3: the tournament. That shows some savvy knowledge of the tournament,
Speaker 3: which maybe some other managers and systems have not shown
Speaker 3: so far to quickly highlight that. I'm not certain if
Speaker 3: there also ever actually thought that they were qualified. It
Speaker 3: was probably like a misspeak of how he kind of
Speaker 3: like talked about it.
Speaker 2: But it is kind of hilarious.
Speaker 3: That, like the talking point for twenty four hours was
Speaker 3: did the US know the rules of how the tournament works?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that did seem to be the bulk of the
Speaker 1: content on social media, and that was just marked Euros
Speaker 1: it doesn't know the rules of the WBC. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you're probably right. It's one of those things you
Speaker 1: just say, and he meant to say, we've practically qualified,
Speaker 1: not I think that we're actually already in. But yeah,
Speaker 1: still still drew plenty of attention and of course could
Speaker 1: have gone very bad for them on them on that
Speaker 1: final game against Mexico.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to be in that scenario was not good.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think going back to going back to
Speaker 3: pul A, Puerto Ico had to come back in extras
Speaker 3: to beat Panama as well. So this this group actually
Speaker 3: ended up being a fairly like even group across the
Speaker 3: board if you look at it from a selfish like
Speaker 3: TMGB perspective, like if they were raced Columbia, who would
Speaker 3: have been not in Colmbia already have been Panama probably
Speaker 3: the team that they would have replaced in that group. Honestly,
Speaker 3: there's bobly chances they could have gone out on that group,
Speaker 3: but there's also a chance that they could have finished
Speaker 3: bottom because there wasn't a clear bad team, And yeah,
Speaker 3: obviously you you'd probably want to be in that group
Speaker 3: because that gives you the opportunity to go further. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I think Panama will be feel a rubb to have
Speaker 3: to go back through the qualification process after beating team
Speaker 3: the top of the group eventually.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, It's definitely could have gone a lot of
Speaker 1: different ways that one. I think I guess we should
Speaker 1: we should talk about Japan and probably talk about Andressatoria
Speaker 1: and church.
Speaker 2: Hip as well.
Speaker 1: The expected result in the end, but they didn't quite
Speaker 1: dominate all of the games throughout, did they.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like Japan went out.
Speaker 3: I think the game against South Korea was a really
Speaker 3: entertaining game. They absolutely mash Chinese Taipei, which is something
Speaker 3: that I don't think people really anticipated would happen. But
Speaker 3: with Otani getting that grand slam like in the second inning,
Speaker 3: I think at the end of the second inning being
Speaker 3: a triple away from a cycle. But in the games
Speaker 3: against South Korea, in the games against Australia and games
Speaker 3: against Chechia for eight innings, Japan didn't look as imperious
Speaker 3: as they didn't qualify last time. Around, So I think
Speaker 3: teams have got to think that, yes they are still
Speaker 3: one of the favorites, if not the favorite, win to
Speaker 3: win the tournament.
Speaker 2: But they are.
Speaker 3: Human as to say that there are some chinks in
Speaker 3: the armor there and we'll have to see kind of
Speaker 3: how they perform. Now. They did score a lot. They
Speaker 3: did only concede nine runs across four games, so they
Speaker 3: scored a lot in obviously beating in a couple of
Speaker 3: the games and attacked on those late runs which made
Speaker 3: it look better than it did. But when you have
Speaker 3: like Otani, you have Murakami, when you had Yashida playing
Speaker 3: like it's three years ago again in the WBC, seems
Speaker 3: to be that, Yeah, he just needs to think that
Speaker 3: every game that he plays in Boston is the world
Speaker 3: based is wearing the Japan Japanese jersey, and he might
Speaker 3: be a much better player than than when he is.
Speaker 3: But no, yeah, Japan progressed cheche It was. It was
Speaker 3: a tough group for Chechia to get anything out of,
Speaker 3: if we're honest, Like Chinese IIPEI Taiwan were unlucky to
Speaker 3: be relegated last time around. They were in the group
Speaker 3: where all five teams finished with two wins and they
Speaker 3: have the work conceded the most run so they had
Speaker 3: to go requalify, which meant that they were the qualifying
Speaker 3: team in this group and they're not a qualifying team
Speaker 3: then were near the level of the other qualifying teams
Speaker 3: that come through. So Cheschia definitely had a rough time
Speaker 3: going about that. But Australia was the game wished they
Speaker 3: really need to get something out of and I think
Speaker 3: the pitching from Australia was was a was a really
Speaker 3: like a pleasant surprise for what they managed to get
Speaker 3: out of it. They limited Japan to four runs and
Speaker 3: they limited South Korea to kind of like to seven
Speaker 3: and in the games that kind of got away with them.
Speaker 3: And obviously the three to zero win at the start
Speaker 3: of the tournaments against Taiwan to kind of to really.
Speaker 2: Kick it all off.
Speaker 3: So there's there's five teams there that will feel that
Speaker 3: they've done good. I think Taiwan will will be upset
Speaker 3: after winning the Premier twelve to not make it out
Speaker 3: of that group, but it was always going to be
Speaker 3: a very difficult task with.
Speaker 2: With South Korea and Japan in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think Australia too, I'm sure if you'd
Speaker 1: said this to them at the start of the tournament,
Speaker 1: they would have taken it. But given given the circumstances
Speaker 1: and how close they came, they're probably feeling a little
Speaker 1: bit disappointed to not make it through either, are they.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so you win two games, you kind
Speaker 3: of push it the way they're through. I think that
Speaker 3: game against Japan where kind of it's three four in
Speaker 3: the end, but it's like, obviously they got two back
Speaker 3: in that in the top of the nights to kind
Speaker 3: of and you felt that, oh, are we about to
Speaker 3: see something here? Like there is there is a real
Speaker 3: like momentum shift kind of like happening in this game,
Speaker 3: and you were like, they just didn't couldn't quite kind
Speaker 3: of get over the line. But people like bizarre of show,
Speaker 3: but why they are like the number one in like
Speaker 3: in the world to kind of to get it out
Speaker 3: there and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one top prospects in the world.
Speaker 3: But also like the McDonald pitching has just been absolutely
Speaker 3: like phenomenal as well. And I think from a purely
Speaker 3: selfish position, we probably would have wanted Australia to get through.
Speaker 3: That's purely thinking about twenty thirty two and the fact
Speaker 3: that Brisbane is hosting the Olympic Games, and we want
Speaker 3: a strong Australian baseball team to make Australia keep baseball
Speaker 3: in the Olympics because it is now an invitational sport.
Speaker 2: They're not on not a core sport. But who knows.
Speaker 3: Hopefully they they did enough to maybe keep that in thought.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fingers crossed.
Speaker 1: And finally, Paul d which may be the sort of
Speaker 1: the most predictable with the most predictable results in their games,
Speaker 1: the Dominican Republic lineup. Did Dominican Republic line up things,
Speaker 1: didn't they They mashed against everybody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, forty one runs scored in four games. They demolished.
Speaker 3: They put ten on Or, They put ten on Israel,
Speaker 3: Netherlands and Nicaragula and then put seven on Venezuela in
Speaker 3: that last game in what honestly looked like an atmosphere
Speaker 3: that was amazing. And thinking of the games that I
Speaker 3: saw with Venezuela and USA in Miami last year, it's
Speaker 3: definitely want to want to get make sure that those
Speaker 3: guys potentially stay there to the to the semi finals
Speaker 3: so I can see games like that again.
Speaker 2: But no, this.
Speaker 3: One, I mean, of all the groups, this is the
Speaker 3: one that went to the letter what you've kind of anticipated,
Speaker 3: nicki Agua word the qualifier did struggle Netherlands. Obviously that's
Speaker 3: a that's a tough loss against Israel in the end.
Speaker 3: I think obviously losing potentially one of their probably most
Speaker 3: key players in the minutes before the tournament starts due
Speaker 3: to being suspended for drugs and seemingly also not telling
Speaker 3: anybody anything and just that Profiles immediately just left doesn't
Speaker 3: probably like help build up like the the atmosphere that
Speaker 3: is like involved, but like the Netherlands team is is.
Speaker 2: A good one, is a strong one.
Speaker 3: But I think no, like they don't have they have
Speaker 3: some opportunity to pour players from abroad the same way
Speaker 3: that from the from Kurrtsaw and a few other places
Speaker 3: in the in the Caribbean, but not the same way
Speaker 3: that like TV can and not have the same thing
Speaker 3: that the same thing that Italy and potentially Israel can
Speaker 3: have by pulling in a lot of players of ancestry
Speaker 3: to pull that kind.
Speaker 2: Of pull that off.
Speaker 3: But that that game at the end between Israel and
Speaker 3: ons was was an entertaining one to kind of like
Speaker 3: to watch sum if it wasn't potentially like there wasn't
Speaker 3: any consequences like behind it. But when you look through
Speaker 3: like the lineup, you're just like, okay, yeah, this is
Speaker 3: like still like a fairly good team. And again you
Speaker 3: go purely from a selfish perspective, drop GB in this group.
Speaker 2: Where would they finish?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they would have had very good games
Speaker 3: against done that like they had been replacing probably Israel
Speaker 3: based on last year's performance. So yeah, they could have
Speaker 3: had a chance of finishing third or fourth in this group.
Speaker 3: I think that would have been the same. But I
Speaker 3: don't think they would have touched Ben as well. They're
Speaker 3: or the Dominican Republic and in how they were, how
Speaker 3: they were playing. So this one played out fairly kind
Speaker 3: of as taste anticipated, but has some pretty glorious high
Speaker 3: like moments from some of the walk offs and especially
Speaker 3: with Yeah, especially in kind of about how some of
Speaker 3: those games went that like the Netherlands nearly lost to
Speaker 3: the Nicaragua before and all of those other games that
Speaker 3: kind of like got were close but required some.
Speaker 2: Why is the hitting the bats to come live at
Speaker 2: the end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was heartbreaking to see the Nicera Grund players
Speaker 1: looked devastated after Ozzie Always hit that home run. They
Speaker 1: were they were so close, and I did feel quite
Speaker 1: bad for them watching them after that game, because that
Speaker 1: would have been an amazing moment for them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're not up there for me to quite have
Speaker 3: the chardon freud a moment, But like the there seemed
Speaker 3: to be a few clips of the fans like getting
Speaker 3: ready to record the win and then having the home
Speaker 3: run take the game away from them and stunning them
Speaker 3: into silence. Like I don't dislike Nicaraguans enough ten for
Speaker 3: that to find that like highly amusing, but it's still
Speaker 3: slightly amusing that you're there ready to kind of film
Speaker 3: what potentially is the greatest moment in your in your
Speaker 3: in your team's.
Speaker 2: History, and just the habit kind of like wiped away
Speaker 2: from you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty pretty devastating for them. So we obviously have
Speaker 1: that quarter final line upset and the Dominican will go
Speaker 1: through and play Korea, and Venezuela will of course be
Speaker 1: playing Japan. Have you got your eye on a on
Speaker 1: a game here? Which are you looking forward to the
Speaker 1: most out of the four?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think probably like wuer Italy.
Speaker 3: Again, it's like it's another one of those ones where
Speaker 3: we've seen Italy win, we've seen them kind of go
Speaker 3: through again to kind of push this through. Now we've
Speaker 3: got guys you see like Okay, it's just can you
Speaker 3: do it again? Is it repeatable? Like because this is
Speaker 3: tornment baseball where it's it's single elimination like Italy of
Speaker 3: everything's probably gone their way so far, Like will it
Speaker 3: continue to do that?
Speaker 2: That's definitely one.
Speaker 3: It's probably wrong to say all of them because they
Speaker 3: all have some really interesting things to talk about them.
Speaker 3: But South Korea Dominican Republic, that's some big swingers on
Speaker 3: both sides. Like the Korean approach to swinging a baseball
Speaker 3: bat is all or nothing, and the guys on the
Speaker 3: Dominican lineup is the same. So I can't imagine that
Speaker 3: they'll be not entertaining games USA Canada.
Speaker 2: Hey, like.
Speaker 3: Gain the USA should be favorites basically and unless they
Speaker 3: play probably like Dominica or Japan. So you've got to
Speaker 3: think that they should be winning this. But it's like,
Speaker 3: can they get their head out of the funk that
Speaker 3: maybe that they're in.
Speaker 2: How does that? How does it all play?
Speaker 3: Canada the neighbors to the north, is there any extra
Speaker 3: extra bite that can go into that. I'm looking down
Speaker 3: here and I can see that ringing. Josh Naylor is
Speaker 3: wearing like a Canadian hockey jersey as he's like taking
Speaker 3: his BP. See if I can turn around and show
Speaker 3: that to people, if you can just down there just
Speaker 3: waiting to like take his BPS in a Canadian hockey jersey.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like they're enjoying it.
Speaker 3: They've had like a great tournament to tod of to
Speaker 3: get to this point. But you without knowing kind of
Speaker 3: like the exact of like who's who's going to pitch?
Speaker 3: Who's going to give that? I think USA Logan Web
Speaker 3: is pitching for them in the quarterfinal game. So these
Speaker 3: all should be great entertainment to watch. The only slight
Speaker 3: thing that I don't like is that the quarterfinals are manufactured,
Speaker 3: So the fact that the USA and Japan end up
Speaker 3: on the different side of the.
Speaker 2: The brackets no matter what. So it's a little bit.
Speaker 3: You can I love the WC and all the different things,
Speaker 3: when people have a go at it for being an
Speaker 3: exhibitional stuff like that, and I'm like, well, it isn't
Speaker 3: doogle players, It definitely isn't. But when the organizational stuff
Speaker 3: happens like that, you're going to be a bit like,
Speaker 3: this isn't really like the way it should work. Ifally
Speaker 3: an USA should have their game should be in playing
Speaker 3: in the different games heasably should have earned by beating
Speaker 3: the USA, not the factor have to play Japan in
Speaker 3: the semi final.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does feel a little bit off that one.
Speaker 1: I think certainly anybody used to any standard knockout tournaments,
Speaker 1: it's anathema really to have that concept come up. So
Speaker 1: you would like to see that not happened. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: understand why they've done it, but yeah, it feels like
Speaker 1: it's if they should be rewarded more than they have
Speaker 1: been for winning that group.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I initially read it that they were just switching
Speaker 3: the game so the USA would be played at like
Speaker 3: on a certain time, we'll get like a certain game,
Speaker 3: because that happens in other competitions where it's just like
Speaker 3: oh yeah, like they'll play this semi final or this
Speaker 3: quarter final regardless, because we want them to basically have
Speaker 3: the the prime TV slot.
Speaker 2: But that's not the case.
Speaker 3: But hey, how like, if if Italy have got to
Speaker 3: win this tournament, they've probably got to beat Japan anyway,
Speaker 3: so doing in the semifinals instead of the instead of
Speaker 3: the finals, and have some potential grudge match revenge match
Speaker 3: against the ARF for the US like in the final,
Speaker 3: or who knows, we could have a whole Latin American
Speaker 3: Dominican Republic Venezuela final again, go for another thing don
Speaker 3: down in Miami.
Speaker 2: Any one of those games is will be will be
Speaker 2: great to watch. Yeah, I can't wait to get to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, We've got We've got Suarez Yamamoto on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: We should be a pretty banging matchup.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and I think I'm not saying with like
Speaker 3: Japan's games last time round, who the com who they
Speaker 3: had in the quarterfinals, But the game against Mexico in
Speaker 3: the semis, like Dow atmosphere was was amazing, And I
Speaker 3: imagine the Venezuelan and atmosphere in Home Depot again will
Speaker 3: be lit. Deeper Park will also be like another pretty
Speaker 3: ecstatic one to be involved with. Am a little disappointed that,
Speaker 3: ah the quarterfinals, some quarter finals are here, are not
Speaker 3: all of them back over in Miami, So I'm going
Speaker 3: to miss out on watching a couple of them compared
Speaker 3: to the last time round.
Speaker 1: But can't really complain it seems to be going all right.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask more generally. You're obviously at the
Speaker 1: last one. It feels like the last one hyped people
Speaker 1: up even more for this. Does it feel different on
Speaker 1: the ground. Are there more people around? Is there more
Speaker 1: press interest or does it feel kind of like lafetime?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think kind of like from a from a personal
Speaker 3: perspective like me and gave last time around, we're pretty.
Speaker 2: Fly on the wall with our approach. We weren't.
Speaker 3: We kind of chatted to some of like the GB
Speaker 3: players and the GB staff as kind of like things
Speaker 3: went on, but we kind of came. We kind of
Speaker 3: sang a little little press box area and kind of
Speaker 3: just cheered GB and kind of ask questions in press
Speaker 3: conferences and kind of did that around. This time around,
Speaker 3: with a phone and a couple of mics, have been
Speaker 3: far more just like acket, let's just kind of go
Speaker 3: this person looks semi free, let's go ask them some
Speaker 3: questions and and see what their thoughts on in it.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, it's been it's very interesting to do that.
Speaker 3: The players seem to be like everybody's involved in this
Speaker 3: is loving, like what's going on a lot of them
Speaker 3: seem to be talking about like how like the clubhouse
Speaker 3: feels different to like the regular season. Mark de Roso
Speaker 3: even himself as saying that like in the past when
Speaker 3: he was playing, players were just chill in the clubhouse
Speaker 3: or chill in the hotel lobby after the game because
Speaker 3: that's all they could do, and like players don't normally
Speaker 3: do that because they can go home and play on
Speaker 3: their Xbox or stream or go to go do so
Speaker 3: many things that like were just not available in the past,
Speaker 3: so they don't they don't interact in the same way
Speaker 3: they did before. So it was very interesting to hear
Speaker 3: to say that, like their players are almost like actually
Speaker 3: interacting like a team like they used to, and how
Speaker 3: that's actually kind of having a positive impact. But now, yeah, Houston,
Speaker 3: it's it's been wet and mudgy for most of the time,
Speaker 3: so compared to Phoenix, which was just hot and dry heat.
Speaker 3: But now it's it's an amazing experience to be out here.
Speaker 3: We kind of I can't I can't really say many
Speaker 3: bad words around it because it's just unbelievable to be
Speaker 3: able to get to watch these games, get to to
Speaker 3: see and have the conversations with not just the players
Speaker 3: get to comment on how small Jeff Passon and Ken
Speaker 3: Rosenthal and John Morosi all are. If you wanted to know,
Speaker 3: Bob Nightingale is actually quite tall. He's definitely like the
Speaker 3: the person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he is quite a tall man.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Combining the of the ones together, it's definitely it's a
Speaker 3: different experience.
Speaker 2: But no, it's just it's just nice.
Speaker 3: You just kind of get to meet and say hello
Speaker 3: to some other people. Obviously, I've done a couple of
Speaker 3: many views with Vinnie, and I've chatted to him a
Speaker 3: couple of other points during the this week, and he
Speaker 3: is just genuinely like a wonderful person, Like he is
Speaker 3: seems so friendly, so willing to chat, seems to be
Speaker 3: having the time of his life. But this has generally
Speaker 3: been a passion project for him. He was in the
Speaker 3: press conference after the game yesterday was is like I'm
Speaker 3: struggling not to like cry here. It's like, this is
Speaker 3: a big moment. This is a lot of efforts that
Speaker 3: have been put in blah bah by himself, but many
Speaker 3: of the other people involved, and so seeing that sort
Speaker 3: of stuff and then and then seeing the other side
Speaker 3: of him where before the before the game.
Speaker 2: Before the USA Gain.
Speaker 3: He was basically Bobby and Witt was coming out of
Speaker 3: the interview room and he was coming into the interview
Speaker 3: room and he was like, oh, oh, are we allowed
Speaker 3: to shake hands or we allowed to hug? Having making
Speaker 3: discussions of the everybody getting upset about Carl Ally and
Speaker 3: Randia rose Arena having just a thing between friends, which
Speaker 3: everybody assumed was way worse than it actually was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Vinnie, I mean every piece of Vinnie content I
Speaker 1: think I consume makes it seem like he's one of
Speaker 1: the people who it's especially in a short tournament like this,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to get a bit of clubhouse chemistry going,
Speaker 1: I think the of that cannot be overstated. He must
Speaker 1: be a tremendous guys having there to bring a team together.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like if there is if you want to talk
Speaker 3: about like a player that you have, people say like
Speaker 3: all they have intangibles or whatever, or is a clubhouse
Speaker 3: glue or whatever, Like Vinnie one hundred percent has that.
Speaker 3: Like everybody who's involved in this Italian team is born
Speaker 3: in he is. It's even Francisco Savelli was like, it's
Speaker 3: Vinnie's team, Like he's done a lot of the effort,
Speaker 3: but he's the one who's basically just allowed people to
Speaker 3: be to be people. Yeah, Semelli said that like a
Speaker 3: lot of the time when young players come in there,
Speaker 3: they can be quite they have to how do we
Speaker 3: have to behave behind like how the veterans are or whatever,
Speaker 3: And Viny's not like a massive veteran like himself or
Speaker 3: anything like that, but he's set the tone basically of like, no, boys,
Speaker 3: we be ourselves.
Speaker 2: And you be you.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of basically what helps basically these these
Speaker 3: players come through. Because for this first few games, it
Speaker 3: was it was the bottom of the lineup for Ida,
Speaker 3: leader was hitting like didn't until that game that was
Speaker 3: over twelve before more heating is three home runs. But
Speaker 3: against USA, I think they went over twenty two. The
Speaker 3: top five in the order did. So it's like those
Speaker 3: young guys are really stepping up and I kind of
Speaker 3: having those great momments in it, and it's just it's
Speaker 3: just fantastic to see people have fun playing baseball because
Speaker 3: it's clear that everybody who is here playing is genuinely
Speaker 3: having fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been wonderful to see, I think, and another
Speaker 1: great part of this tournament and we don't really get
Speaker 1: you know, I think they've faded away the curmudgeons who
Speaker 1: you know, complain about batflips and people having fun on
Speaker 1: the field that we don't get so much of NMLB anymore.
Speaker 1: But you really really get the sense in this tournament
Speaker 1: that that you know, nobody would even think about saying that.
Speaker 1: That know, the fans, the players, they're all having too
Speaker 1: much fun for somebody to come out and say this
Speaker 1: isn't how you play the game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking of bat flips, Jack Haglione did say in
Speaker 3: the in the post game for his one is that
Speaker 3: he was meant to let go a lot earlier, but
Speaker 3: the pine ta got stuck on the glove and so
Speaker 3: basically like by the time he basically actually came out
Speaker 3: of his hand and he'd launched it a lot.
Speaker 1: For I thought he was going to hit somebody in
Speaker 1: the dugout with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was just like after he left it, he
Speaker 3: was saying that he was like, oh, bollock, because I've
Speaker 3: nearly like hit somebody. But it's just amazing to see
Speaker 3: these moments. It's amazing to see like constantly with the
Speaker 3: WBC being an opportunity for young players to come up
Speaker 3: and get to show themselves on a stage that they
Speaker 3: maybe would normally get to see. So obviously with Lucas
Speaker 3: Hramirez for Brazil and with Kemon as well, they're getting
Speaker 3: the breaking Aro and Judges band and getting into Granta,
Speaker 3: into into the double play. Like Niger to probably just
Speaker 3: added like a load to his reputation from striking out
Speaker 3: three major league players, including getting Gunner Henderson to.
Speaker 2: Strike out swinging for the last out.
Speaker 3: He did say that he was trying to cheer and
Speaker 3: celebrate towards the fans, but maybe directed a little bit
Speaker 3: too much of the dugout because of some of the
Speaker 3: US players were just like, oh, yeah, we're going to
Speaker 3: get you, boy, We're going to get you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wonderful to say somebody great stories made and yeah, somebody
Speaker 1: profiles raised as well. As part of this, Gav did
Speaker 1: ask us about the Olympics. There are implications in this
Speaker 1: tournament beyond just who wins the tournament. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if you can speak to that briefly about the
Speaker 1: implications for who advances and who doesn't hear and how
Speaker 1: that might affect what we see at the Olympics in
Speaker 1: twenty eight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So It's the weird thing with base in the
Speaker 3: Olympics is because it's a team sport and it's a
Speaker 3: they don't want many teams actually in it team sport
Speaker 3: to take up too much based in England Village. So
Speaker 3: there's only six teams that actually will be in the Olympics,
Speaker 3: and so that means that one of them is already
Speaker 3: guaranteed because it's USA, the host nation. The WBCE and
Speaker 3: like the Olympic Committee, decided how we're going to fill
Speaker 3: out the rest of the five spots. The America's part
Speaker 3: of the allocation decided that they were just going to
Speaker 3: do it based on the two teams that do best
Speaker 3: in the World Baseball Classic. So whichever two teams that
Speaker 3: are classed in the Americas, which is basically as any
Speaker 3: North Central or South American or Caribbean team that will
Speaker 3: finish in the top two below the US will qualify
Speaker 3: for the Olympics. No other country has chosen to use this.
Speaker 3: Most of the rest of the qualification will come via
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty seven Premier twelve, So the top Asian
Speaker 3: team which will form in that twenty twelve, and the
Speaker 3: top europe slash Oceana team will qualify, so that's something
Speaker 3: that GB has a possibility of doing. They're in qualifiers
Speaker 3: at the end of this year and there has been
Speaker 3: announced to they will be playing I'm now going to
Speaker 3: forget because it is in China, but they are facing
Speaker 3: up I think I'm going to start to double check
Speaker 3: this on the part which is always the best one.
Speaker 3: They're playing against China and che and Nico Agua, so
Speaker 3: that once again that's something that they can potentially do well.
Speaker 3: Qualify that gets them through to the tournament, and then
Speaker 3: they have to be basically the West European team and
Speaker 3: Australia out of those out of those teams, and that
Speaker 3: would be a possible qualification for the Olympics. If they
Speaker 3: fail to do that, which is probably more likely, they're
Speaker 3: the GB's only route is then via the final qualification tournament,
Speaker 3: which will have the two top teams from the Asian
Speaker 3: Baseball Championships that haven't qualified, the two top teams from
Speaker 3: European Championships, the top Oceania team and the top African team.
Speaker 3: So effectively there will then be a mini tournament between
Speaker 3: all of those to go through, which imagining that probably
Speaker 3: those top Asian teams potentially could include one of like
Speaker 3: Japan or Korea, or potentially it will include one in
Speaker 3: Japan or Korea. It's going to be a very difficult
Speaker 3: tournament to actually.
Speaker 2: Like qualify through.
Speaker 3: So it's not it's out there, but it's it is
Speaker 3: a weird kind of thing that we have qualification for
Speaker 3: the Olympics coming through the wide routes available. But I
Speaker 3: don't think it's going to really play into the mind
Speaker 3: of any of the teams or the that I here
Speaker 3: right now. It just gives them something to an extra
Speaker 3: thing to kind of like to think about once it's
Speaker 3: all done and dusted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine they're very much focus on the task
Speaker 1: at hand at the moment, not thinking about something in
Speaker 1: two and a half time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's probably somebody at the back there. I don't
Speaker 2: know who was.
Speaker 3: Who is the Gary Anderson equivalent for some of these
Speaker 3: other countries and stuff like that, the delegations, the mark
Speaker 3: on Mataratzi, who is for Italy? Who who kind of
Speaker 3: thinking about these sorts of things so far on ahead.
Speaker 3: But I imagine no one on the USA or Dominican
Speaker 3: or Venezuelan team is really thinking about that whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think they'll probably be focused on
Speaker 1: on just winning at the end of this week. So
Speaker 1: I think that about covers the action that's happened so far. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's lots of great content on the website, Backflipsindre's dot com.
Speaker 1: Both you and Gav have been posting up a storm there,
Speaker 1: and you've been doing tons on the socials. Is there
Speaker 1: anything else that you want to pick out, anything you've
Speaker 1: got coming up, or or anything you just wanted to
Speaker 1: highlight as a particularly great moment so far that you've enjoyed.
Speaker 3: I think I do find a couple of things, obviously,
Speaker 3: like the moment of like the tournament in a way.
Speaker 3: I was reading some things before the game against Italy.
Speaker 3: It was like, oh, like Cal Schwarber's monster home run
Speaker 3: was like the moment of the tournament so far, and
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah.
Speaker 2: You beating like GB.
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily like what you think like the monster
Speaker 3: moments are. But I think, yeah, obviously, Gabs done when
Speaker 3: we actually talk about stuff, Gas written great articles. Gav's
Speaker 3: been the one who's been tweeting out most of the time,
Speaker 3: keeping people updated. Where do go look at the site?
Speaker 3: I think there are a few people who are getting
Speaker 3: out some of their five reasons to be optimistic because
Speaker 3: there is still baseball, major League Baseball coming that we're
Speaker 3: gonna have to switch our brains very quickly to go
Speaker 3: back to that too. But it is, it is on
Speaker 3: the horizon for what should be a very interesting MLB season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not long as tourn It's only a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks away. So this is going to finish, and
Speaker 1: we're very quickly going to have to be yoh, get
Speaker 1: these players back to their teams and get ready for
Speaker 1: the regular season because it's going to be starting, yeah
Speaker 1: in two weeks time. So all that to look forward
Speaker 1: to as well. Great stuff. I'm sure we will be
Speaker 1: back with more after the tournament concludes. Get your recap
Speaker 1: of the knockout stages should be great to hear, and
Speaker 1: I think we will have the infamous Prediction pod coming
Speaker 1: up soon as well at some point everybody's favorite podcast
Speaker 1: of the year or just mine because they get to
Speaker 1: up out a spreadsheet, So to look out for all
Speaker 1: of that and we will catch you next time.