If both teams win -- South Korea against Venezuela on Saturday and Japan over the U.S. on Sunday -- they will meet again in Monday's championship game.
But should that happen, a baseball title will be only part of what's at stake.
"Because of history," says Kim, a baseball writer with SportsChosun of Seoul, "there's bad memories."
That will happen when one country invades, then annexes, another, as Japan did to Korea, leaving only when expelled after World War II. Even now the suspicions and distrust run deep, leaving the nations as reluctant allies. But if the bad blood started with history, it also has become territorial and cultural. And the baseball field has not been immune to those tensions.
"It goes back to our history and tradition," agreed former Dodgers pitcher Jae Seo, who planted a South Korean flag on the mound at Angel Stadium after his country beat Japan in the quarterfinal round of the 2006 WBC, a ritual the Koreans repeated -- much to Japan's anger -- after beating Japan again this week.
"It stems from our parents' generation and us," Seo said. "I'm sure that our next generation probably will feel the same."
"They have big bodies," Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, said through an interpreter. "They play closer to American-style baseball than Japanese baseball."
In Japan, where ethnic purity has traditionally been revered, such comments smack of racism and ignore the fact that many of the country's best players were -- and still are -- ethnic Koreans.
Masaichi Kaneda, for example, Japan's only 400-game winner, and Isao Harimoto, the only player to get 3,000 hits, were both born to parents who were ethnic Koreans and are permanent residents of Japan but not Japanese nationals. 0030名無しさん2009/03/23(月) 16:34:30ID:JBU5ghic>>13 WBCに夢中な人こそ情報弱者 0031名無しさん2009/03/23(月) 22:58:17ID:gWp0heMy 決勝戦も韓国戦かよ これで今大会5回目だぞ 韓国戦ばかりでもーうんざり 次の大会では対戦方式を変えてほしいよ これじゃーWBCは World Baseball Corea ワールド・ベースボール・コリアだよなー
In Sik Kim, the South Korean manager, said the team had signaled to Lim that he was supposed to pitch around Suzuki. If Suzuki did not bite at a bad pitch, Lim was supposed to walk him. But Lim apparently did not get those signs or did not obey them.
“I don’t know why the pitcher tried to pitch directly to Ichiro,” Kim said.
動画投稿サイトのYouTubeに、KoreaBaseball2009と名乗る韓国のユーザーが作成した、 WBCで優勝した日本代表のイチロー選手やダルビッシュ選手、さらに妻のサエコ氏を侮辱 する主旨のコメントや画像が流れる動画が公開され、再生回数が9時間で1万回を越えた事 が分かった。 動画の内容は「FUCKIN JAPAN」の音声が流れ続け、以下のコメントが流れる。 ' FUCK YOU JAPAN!!!! The real champion of '09 WBC FINAL is KOREA!!!! ICHIRO JAPAN MONKEY FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 〔イチロー選手に中指を突き出す画像) I'll cut your neck!!!!!!!!! (イチロー選手の首元にカッターを突き出す画像) I'll kick your ass!!!! (イチロー選手に足を踏みつける画像) And Fuckin' DARVISH!!!! Your wife SAEKO is WHORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Players repeatedly referred to the Japanese team’s attention to detail as if it were a foreign concept or a long-lost art. The refrain makes you wonder whether the United States might have lost more than a baseball game on Sunday.
Brian Roberts, the team’s second baseman, said: “When you play Japan, when you play Korea and those countries, they’re going to play fundamentally sound baseball. They’re going to do all the little things. You have to focus on the fundamentals. Americans, we probably don’t do as good a job of that as they do at times.”
Rollins added: “They don’t worry about the big things. They didn’t worry about trying to drive the ball out of the ballpark. When you put the ball in play, you can find holes.”
www 0067名無しさん2009/03/26(木) 03:39:43ID:ix06+Aws>>65 だからショートはジータでは無く、ロリンズにやらせろって言われてたし、 そんでDHを守備が上手くないダンにしろって散々言われてたけど、 ジータベンチとか有り得ないかったんだろ? 0068名無しさん2009/03/26(木) 04:49:59ID:P8lGS9XR ジーターはいつも良い所で打つからな。 もしジーターがスタメン落ちで負けたら、監督が戦犯扱いされるし、 視聴率にも影響するからな。 微妙なところだ。 0069名無しさん2009/03/27(金) 15:49:54ID:BEUKV1Ww Thursday was the first time he was around to comment on what has happened since last season ended. That includes quotes this spring from former closer J.J. Putz, among others, that as good as he was, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2008932217_mari27.html
Ichiro: Time to act like "professionals'' Plenty has happened since we last saw Ichiro, starting with these comments by J.J. Putz last month in an interview with Larry Stone. After that, there was this Stone interview about the topic of Ichiro with former manager Jim Riggleman. And then, as well, Adrian Beltre's comments about last year's team, in which he suggested some players weren't doing the little things needed to win. There are other examples, like Carlos Silva's rant last summer in which he spoke out against unidentifed players.
After a few more easier questions were lobbed his way. I finally decided to ask him what we had to ask: about all that's been said since last October.
I quoted from Putz's comments, saying that while he felt Ichiro put up fantastic numbers each year, there was more he could do to help win games. I then mentioned Riggleman's comments the day after that, when he spoke of gathering a handful of players in the clubhouse that he felt were unhappy with Ichiro and trying to get them to address their beefs.