Okay, so the World Baseball Classic officially reached ‘joke’ status when Al Leiter, Al Leiter, was brought in as a replacement for the United States’ roster instead of the, oh, 300-some pitchers out there that are far, far better than he is. But just try not to watch when this schedule pops up on ESPN and ESPN2 March 7:
1:00 p.m.– Dominican Republic vs. Venezuela
4:00 p.m. – Mexico vs. U.S.A.
Granted, the Dominican lineup lost two thirds of their outfield (Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero) in the last week, but they still have Pujols, Big Papi, Soriano, Reyes, Beltre, Tejada, and enough pitching (Fatty Colon, Coco Cordero) to keep them in any game. Venezuela, meanwhile, has a 1-2 knockout punch at the top of their rotation in the form of Johan Santana and Carlos Zambrano, and their hitters (Bobby Abreu, Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, Victor Martinez) ain’t so bad, either. That is appointment viewing Chez Gigi, let me tell ya.
The Mexico/USA game, meanwhile, looks like a letdown on paper, but that’s only because most of Mexico’s roster plays, well, in Mexico. Still, Oliver Perez is there, as is Jorge Cantu (dude knocked in 117 runs last year) and Adrian Gonzalez, who’s supposed to be a monster. Still, they will be no match for the Americans who, despite their many losses, still have a murderer’s row of hitters: A-Rod, D. Jitty, D. Lee, Utley, Damon, Griffey, Teixeira, Chipper, and Michael Young. Then there are the pitchers: Clemens, Dontrelle, Lidge, Peavy, Chad Cordero, Joe Nathan, Scot Shields… yowza.
So get ready, baseball fans. It may not be the dream lineups we hoped for – if they want more players to participate, they should move the series until after the playoffs – but it’s still going to be better than meaningless spring training games. Play ball.
