Dutch Baseball: Bringing March Madness to the WBC

March, like February, is usually a black hole in the cosmos of professional sports. Hockey and Basketball are starting to drag out and so many teams make the playoffs that there are no exciting pennant races. The NFL is in the "every schmuck on the Internet (ours is coming soon I'm sure) has made a mock draft but not even Mel Kiper's hair knows what is going to happen" phase (and don't even try to argue that NFL free agency is as cool as the Hot Stove League).  And, let's face it, only complete nutjobs (not even me) care who wins in the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues.

That leaves us counting down the days until the college basketball season starts (what? They play a whole season before the tourney? You're fulla crap) when the bracket is released on the second Sunday of the month. Those of us who didn't go to a big hoops school mostly watch the tournament for two reasons: seeing if your bracket is right and upsets. In reality it is the upsets that make the whole thing March Madness. Watching a team from a school that even most of its own students have never heard of beat Kansas or Kentucky is the real fun part of the Big Dance, even when it screws your whole bracket up.

And that is what was missing from the World Baseball Classic until last night. The U.S., Puerto Rico, Japan, Venezuela, Cuba, and Korea have all coasted through to the second round in the double elimination format of this years Classic. Panama, South Africa and Italy have all been eliminated. This was all to plan, but Italy beat Canada (no superpower, but anchored by guys like Jason "Buzzards" Bay, Russell Martin, and Justin Morneau), Australia beat Mexico, and, get this, the Netherlands beat The Dominican Republic. Twice.

The Dutch, featuring such stars as Sidney Ponson, Randall Simon (the same Randall Simon who once hit one of the sausage racers in Milwaukee with a bat as it ran by), and, um, uh, yeah, beat the team from the baseball breeding ground that produced David Ortiz, Jose Reyes, the Alou family and Pedro Martinez. Not only was it an upset, but it kept me enthralled for every pitch of the last five innings of a game that on a normal basis I couldn't have cared less about. This is what tournaments are all about. I don't even like college basketball, but if I hear that North Dakota State is beating Louisville in the second half, I'm gonna be cheering like an alum, just to see the underdog win.

Last night I sat down in the seventh inning and had to squint to make sure the score was right. 0-0. Guys named Stuifbergen, Smit, Neuman (a fireballing Red Sox prospect who struck out Tejada in the eighth) and Boyd shut down the imposing All-Star laden lineup from the Dominican. When it really counted Eugene Kinsale and  Yurrendell de Caster came through in the eleventh, even after their opponents had taken the lead in the top of the inning. I couldn't look away, and my girlfriend kept wondering who I was rooting for when I cheered at every out gotten by the Dutch (she knew the Sox and the U.S. were not playing). It's official, I'm caught up in WBC fever, and MLB has achieved it's goal by somehow making me even more excited for the upcoming season.

The important thing is that after watching four days of baseball in the WBC (the 5 am games from Japan don't really count, because I was too bleary eyed to see them, and there weren't really any good games) I want to see more. It's like the World Cup, except I know most of the players and the details of the sport. From the U.S.' nailbiting defeat of Canada on Saturday to last night's monumental upset, the Classic has been better than advertised. The U.S. team plays again tonight, versus Venezuela, as do Puerto Rico and The Netherlands in two meaningless pool championship games (all four teams are already into the next round) and Mexico and Australia face off in an elimination game at 10:00. So excited.

Just one more note: I'm loving the MLB network and it's coverage of the WBC and Spring Training. Seeing Harold Reynolds in studio again and Hazel Mae reporting really makes the coverage legitimate and also entertains me with thoughts of what types of "inappropriate hugs" Reynolds is trying to give our girl Hazel.

Go Sox, Go America.

Done.

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