Hey, Derek Jeter - You Can't Gloss Over the U.S.'s 11-1 loss to Puerto Rico

I understand players trying to downplay the U.S.'s 11-1 mercy-rule loss to Puerto Rico yesterday. 11-1 in a tournament like this is pretty tough, and unlike the regular season, you can't just say, "oh well - there are 162 games."

That said, Derek Jeter is either fooling nobody himself, or he just straight-up doesn't understand the WBC, when he said after the loss that "2-1 or 11-1, we're still in the same position." Um....no. Not this time. See, Derek, in the WBC, like in the World Cup upon which the WBC is modeled, tiebreakers are determined by run differentials. If Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. all finish 2-1 (with Netherlands going 0-3 - and this is if), but Venezuela and Puerto Rico beat their opponents by a greater run differential (which seems more than possible, given that Puerto Rico already has a 10-spot to work with), then the U.S. goes home. So no, 11-1 is not the same as 2-1; the margin of loss yesterday could end up determining the outcome of the second round for the U.S. and its bracket-mates.

So nice try on the effort to gloss over the total beatdown you got yesterday (by a U.S. "territory," which, per my "colonized/colonizers" sports rule, has a certain gleeful irony about it, even if my "home" team lost), but it falls short of glossing anything over. And if you really think that it's the same as losing 2-1, well....

...UPDATE: OK, so apparently, as elm points out here, I somehow missed the fact that it's not round robin this time around, but double-elimination, and I can't find anything that says anything about tiebreakers for this year (though they were in place in 2006, but that was round-robin).

That said, an 11-1 mercy rule loss is still not a 2-1 9-inning loss, and if Jeter thinks that the morale effect of 11-1 is the same as 2-1 in a double-elimination system where you are one loss away from elimination, well....he's either really good at fooling himself, or just fooling nobody. And tiebreakers or not - Derek Jeter is stupid for even trying to convince anybody of this.

The Netherlands Beat the Dominicans....in BASEBALL!!

One of the best things about the World Baseball Classic is meaningful baseball in March. You watch any of these games, and there is no way you can say this doesn't mean a lot to the players representing their countries, and the fans of those teams. And, like a good World Cup, amazing games and incredible underdog runs can really pump up a lot of people (just listen to the sportscaster at the end of the highlight - do you think he had a vested nationalist interest in the Netherlands continuing?).

But still......the Netherlands ousting the Dominican Republic by beating them twice is just mind-blowing, and is already in contention to be one of the best sports stories of the year. To just get a grasp of how amazing this is, consider that the Dominican Republic's pitchers have 518 career wins in Major League Baseball. The Netherlands' team has 95 career professional wins, and ninety of those belong to Sir Sidney Ponson. There are only two major league players who represent the Dutch in the MLB, compared to the 23 Dominicans. And yet, the Netherlands are going to the second round of the World Baseball Classic, and the Dominicans are not. This would be like Cameroon making it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and beating Brazil twice to do it.

And this is exciting for baseball fans for more reasons than just an amazing, meaningful, come-from-behind, extra-innings baseball game in the first half of March. The Netherlands represent only one of two teams (Italy being the other) from Europe. Any and every true fan of their sport would probably like to see that sport become more popular globally - that's why there was NFL Europe, and that's why NBA fans overall enjoy the infusion of players from Europe, Latin America, and China. It is no different for baseball fans, and if this victory gets some kids in the Netherlands or anywhere else in Europe to stop and watch a game a little more closely, try to pick up the rules, or best of all, go out and get a ball, glove, and bat, then the World Baseball Classic has done more for baseball than win fans' hearts - it's spread the good word of Baseball.