[BigBadBuc]

I just read an article about Buck Showalter commenting on how much more disciplined the Japanese and Korean teams are as compared to the Americans. They shag hundreds of balls and take infield practice before every game. The Americans are Fat Cats and got exposed by the more disiplined international teams.

BBB

[ThePundit]

The best thing that happend to the Yanks in the mid '90's was the day they showed the holier than thou phony Showalter to the door and brought in Joe Torre.

The problem with Buck Showalter is he thinks he invented the game. How's he done since he left the Yankees? Showalter is the same guy who in the 1995 playoff loss to Seattle, kept Darryl Strawberry on the bench and played Dion James instead.

Do you know who else was on the Yankees bench who couldn't find the field? Mariano Rivera! Now sure he was a rookie, but why did Joe Torre figure out how good he was immediately after coming to the Yankees in '96?

And what Showalter says is ridiculous. You can't make overall judgements like that based on a short exhition series where you lose just one game and you're out. And since its so wonderful in Japan, maybe Buck should manage there and give the Japanese the benefit of his expertise.

I'll play for the plane tickets.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by BigBadBuc

I just read an article about Buck Showalter commenting on how much more disciplined the Japanese and Korean teams are as compared to the Americans. They shag hundreds of balls and take infield practice before every game. The Americans are Fat Cats and got exposed by the more disiplined international teams.

BBB

We will get even with Japan though...we will keep importing their players until we even the discipline playing field.

[BigBadBuc]

The team that plays the best game wins the game. That's the way it's aways been. That's why they play the games. That's what makes March Madness so great. I think Showalter may be right about baseball discipline in the USA but he's not giving the other teams enough credit. They are talented too.

BBB

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by BigBadBuc

The team that plays the best game wins the game. That's the way it's aways been. That's why they play the games. That's what makes March Madness so great. I think Showalter may be right about baseball discipline in the USA but he's not giving the other teams enough credit. They are talented too.

BBB

So, BBB, is this worse than our Olympic Basketball showing?

[ThePundit]

Let's play a 7 game series where pitchers don't have pitch counts and we can send all of our best like Trevor Hoffman, Bily Wagner, Roy Oswalt,etc..And then I have a feeling Buck Showalter wouldn't be so omniscient.

It's always easy to see a result - then come up with reasons why. We lost the final game 2-1. It was a close game that could have gone either way. I don't think you can indigt USA baseball based on that.

The basketball thing was totally different. That was just downright ugly. Plus the behavior of the athletes turned a lot of people off.

[Wizard of Os]

Originally Posted by Gotham Dark Knight

So, BBB, is this worse than our Olympic Basketball showing?

If i may jump in here...no way is this worse than the Olympic b-ball squad. Those guys were lame beyond lame, potentially the prettiest team out there that didn't just not jell, they didn't even attempt to jel.

Some one above commented about one-loss-and-you're-out nature of the WBC, which is in fact untrue. Japan with four losses makes the final. Perhaps the last round should be double elimination. It's unfortunate that Team Korea's masterful run was ended by one disastrous inning against a team they'd already beaten once.

Cheers, all.

[BigBadBuc]

We have a lot to learn about discipline in International competition. The American's play for the long haul. 162 game seasons. These other countries work their tails off to excel in the international arena. We are not there. Having said that, if the Americans were to take these games as seriously as the rest of the world then I see them winning hands down.

BBB