Press Release International Baseball Federation, www.ibaf.org
KEY MATCHUPS ON TAP FRIDAY: There will again be eight games played on Friday in the Netherlands and Italy, including key matchups between Puerto Rico and Cuba and the United States and Australia. The complete schedule can be found at 2009BaseballWorldCup.com
INTERNATIONAL TELEVSION COVERAGE EXPANDS: The IBAF has added three additional television partners for the latter part of the second round and into the final round. WAPA TV, the Spanish-language channel of Universal Sports in Puerto Rico and the United States, has added Friday’s Cuba-Puerto Rico game, TVES in Venezuela will show all remaining games involving Venezuela, and TV4 in Nicaragua will show all Nicaragua games remaining in the tournament. That is in addition to the coverage of Eurosport2, NOS in the Netherlands, RAI Sport in Italy, and ICRT ib Cuba.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW…MAYBE THE TWINS SHOULD HAVE FIELDED THEIR OWN TEAM: More proof that scouts are the best source for information arose today, when the Twins scouting staff pointed out that there are actually 14 players currently under contract in the organization and playing in the World Cup. The 14 players include: Garcia and Fuentes (PR), Plouffe (USA), Tosoni (CAN), Galvan (Spain), Robb (SA), Stuifbergen (NED), Rehacek, Hejma (CZE), Beresford, Hughes, Hendriks, Tippett, Williams (AUS). In addition, there are nine other players, 23 total, who originally signed with the Twins but are either with another team now, or they have been released: Smit (NED), Tiffee (USA), Gessmann, Henkenjohann (GER), Hajtmar, Toufar (CZE), Berg, Hill (AUS), Sandoval (VEN).
ALVAREZ SETS INDIVIDUAL, USA TIES, TEAM HOMER MARK: Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Pedro Alvarez carved a niche in the USA record book by hitting three home runs in Thursday’s win, including one each in the first two innings of play. Team USA hit six home runs total in the game, tying their World Cup mark set against Spain in both 1988 and 2007. The USA has now hit a tournament-best 22 home runs, led by Texas Rangers prospect Justin Smoak’s six. Smoak has had a pair of two home run games thus far as well.
CUBA AT 7-0 LEADING THE WAY: Cuba’s quest to regain the World Cup continued on Thursday, with their shutout of Spain, their 4th to date and third in their last four games, in the tournament. Led by a pitching staff with a 1.49 ERA and 70 strikeouts vs. only 12 walks, Cuban is the lone remaining undefeated team from the first two rounds. Cuban pitcher Norge Vera raised his record to 2-0 on Wednesday and has yet to allow a run in 14 innings, while Miguel Gonzalez struck out ten consecutive batters against Puerto Rico in his first start (13 overall in 6 1/3 innings), one short of the World Cup mark of 11 set by former Major Leaguer Burt Hooton (Dodgers and Cubs) of the USA in 1971. Cuba is also the World Cup’s leading hitting team, with a .351 average.
DUTCH MOVE TO 4-0 ON HOME TURF: The Netherlands improved their record to 4-0 with Wednesday’s win. San Francisco Giants prospect Sharlon Schoop, who played with Connecticut of the Eastern League this season, is hitting .500 (9-18) in the first five games, while former Baltimore Oriole Eugene Kingsale is hitting at a .455 pace.
USA PITCHING IN CONTROL AGAIN: Team USA’s starters continued their dominance the second time through their rotation, as Atlanta Braves prospect Todd Redmond pitched seven shutout innings Thursday to earn his second win, matching the mark of Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Brad Lincoln who allowed just one run against Japan on Tuesday. The USA rotation has combined to allow just five earned runs, 18 hits and 46 strikeouts in 41 innings. On Saturday Reckling, had 11 K’s against China, which tied the mark of former Dodger and Cubs pitcher Burt Hooten, who fanned 11 consecutive batters in 1970. Sunday, Luebeke joined Reckling, Ben McDonald (1988) and Hank Woodman (2003) as the only USA pitchers to reach double digits in a game. Overall Team USA set their own World Cup record with 16 strikeouts vs. China, breaking the mark of 14 set against Brazil in 2003.
NEW DUTCH HALL OF FAMER: Former national team-pitcher and manager Jan-Dick Leurs officially was inducted into the Dutch Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame on Wednesday during a ceremony before the game of the Netherlands and Spain in Haarlem. As a player, Leurs won five Dutch championships with Haarlem Nicols, whom he then coached to six more titles. As manager of the Dutch national team, Leurs guided the squad to three European titles.
D-BACKS SIGN FIRST EUROPEAN PROSPECT: The Arizona Diamondbacks this week have signed pitcher Andrea Pizziconi of Italy, their first ever European player signing. Pizziconi is the cousin of Cincinnati reds prospect Matteo Pizziconi, who went 2-2 with a 1.80 ERA for the Reds Rookie League team this past summer
EXTRA INNING RULE: The IBAF’s Extra Inning Rule, designed to control the length of games, has now been used five times, with Chinese Taipei (2-0) and Australia (1-1) going to extra innings the most thus far. For extra innings, each team starts their half of the inning with runners on first and second and no out. Each subsequent inning starts the same until a winner is determined. A version of the rule, starting in the 11th inning, was implemented during the Beijing Olympics and was used five times, with only one game going an additional inning before being decided. The World Baseball Classic adapted the rule, starting in the 14th inning, but it was never put into effect.