by Peter Ferak, reporting for Mister-Baseball from the second round of the Baseball World Cup in Italy
“They are all Pros” said the heavy Australian watching the ballgame, “they know how to deal with traveling”. It is now more obvious to me than ever, I am not a Pro. And I do not know how to deal with traveling. After driving over 1,000 kilometers in the past two days I found myself in the middle of nowhere, Godo, a tiny town off the Adriatic coast. A scene that dwarfs what the makers of Field of Dreams were able to create. A hay-stack behind the left field bullpen. But yet a high quality field.
But the fact is that traveling does affect the players and maybe the Shortstop for Australia wished he would’ve been able to rest more after butchering a short roller straight at him in the 10th inning of a game that was “very very toit” to quote Mike Mayers from Goldmember. 1–1 after regulation, Australia was the stronger team but could not capitalize, a strong top of the 10th put the Aussies up 4–1 and it seemed that the game was decided. After the shortstop’s error let Chinese Taipei back in the game and scored the two “speed up rule” runners (IBAF rules put runners on 1st and 2nd at the beginning of every extra inning) it was 4–3 with one down.
Chinese Taipei had managed only a few hits, none very threatening, and again the hitter fell behind in the count. With two strikes a curve ball bounces away from the catcher, the hitter is headed towards first base after his swing, and the runner from first advances to third. Confusion on the field, the batter is supposed to be out as there was a runner at first with only one out. Umpires talk it out and decide the ruling is a foul ball, which puts the runner back to first and the count to 2 strikes. Any manager would probably trade an out to have the tying run at third. The threat of a bounced breaking ball gives the hitter a good chance to cash in the run.
But maybe, just maybe, a manager would rather have his hitter who’s at bat was saved only by the sound of a foul ball hit a game winning homerun over the right-center field wall. Chinese Taipei celebrated their win at home plate, but in terms of the tournament Australia still looks to be one of the favorites.
What makes this tournament so unique is that for any given team virtually every game is played at a different sight. This means bus trips before and after games, arriving at the hotel at 2:30 in the morning, changing hotels, and so forth. The question is which team will grow closest and overcome these obstacles. Australia is on a good way, and I am now on my way to a bed some 50 meters of the shore of the ocean. Luckily the beauty of Italy makes the ringing in my head a little less louder.
Follow Peter Ferak on his trip through Italy at his blog