Well, my clacker is sore from sitting on the lounge today, and the 4 year-old princess had to do a lot of colouring-in (don't tell Her Majesty, she thinks we were doing educational activities).
But what a day's baseball!
Cuba showed again why they are the best in the world at playing tournament baseball. There's really no way that Puerto Rico shouldn't have won today's game, but with the Cubans pulling every trick in the book and then some to put them off their game, next thing you knew the Cubans had won their way through to the next round and the might of the US were waiting for other games' results to come through to see if they even get a chance to win their way in. Who'd of thunk it?

Then the Koreans and the Japanese put on a classic Asian game of baseball. Perfect defense was the order of the day, and the lightning pace of the game made an incredible contrast to the snail's pace war of attrition the Cubans had just waged on the home town heroes in Hiram Stadium.

I really was torn as to who I wanted to win this one. I really like the way the Koreans play the game, and there was a lot of me that wanted Ichiro's earlier comments to come back and bite him on the arse, then again, if the Japanese came through and beat the Koreans then the US would be out with one game against the Mexicans to go. Bottom of the ninth, 2 runs down and a home run and a single puts the winning run at the plate. The 2 biggest strikeouts of his career for reliever Seung Hwan Oh finished things off, and the Koreans don't have to perform military service now that they've made the final 4 (as if Ichiro hadn't given them enough of a reason to beat the arch enemy).

Back to the Cubans.
This game really reminded me of a closed Queen's side game of chess that came down to a King and minor pieces ending, but the white pieces were played by a charlatan in a bad suit.
Of all the stunts the Cubans pulled, my favourite was in the first innings.
With a runner on second in the top of the innings, the replays showed the runner flashing the location of the upcoming pitch. Cuba went on to score a run to go 1 up. Bernie Williams then led off the bottom of the inning with a typically patient at bat which was punctuated by a full count blast over right field everything. Instantly the Cuban coaches are out and complaining that someone had given away the sign, and since there had been no baserunners thusfar, it was obviously ... the right field ball boy who was giving away the locations!
These guys know exactly when and how to kill momentum, and in spectacularly inventive ways.

I've had the displeasure of being on the wrong side of the Cubans' shall we say 'gamesmanship', and from this distance I can finally appreciate what they do to their opponents' head.

Now if only the Mexicans can get a hold of Roger Clemens tomorrow, that'd be a story.