I just got back from watching the World Baseball Classic semifinals and final at Dodger Field in Los Angles. I got lucky because my daughter and her family live 15 minutes from the stadium, Southwest had cheap tickets, and the tickets to the games were very reasonable. I got a strip of tickets for all three games for $160 for seats 12 rows from the field at 3rd base. The baseball was simply amazing. Everybody played like it was the World Series. I’d largely stopped following MLB since the Rangers choked themselves out of relevance and the Astros went on a youth movement trading off all my favorite players. Many of the players on the teams were MLB All-stars/Golden Glove winners/Batting Champions, but I didn’t even know their names. I’ll certainly be more willing to tune-in or venture to Houston or Arlington to see a game live, now that I’ve seen some of our young stars in action. I was somewhat disappointed with attendance in the two semifinal games, but the weather was really ugly for USA vs. Japan-cool with a constant drizzle. I sat there for the whole game well protected by my burnt orange poncho, but it was tough. Attendance was also probably low because of the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday schedule instead of the weekend. The weather was great for the finals and the park was nearly full. I’m sure USA being in the finals helped a lot. The Netherlands vs. Puerto Rico game was great. I was surprised to see the Netherlands team since I never associated the Netherlands I visited as a child with baseball, but a fan reminded me that the Kingdom of the Netherlands included the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao Sint Eustatius, Sint Eustatius, and Saba where baseball is very popular. I noted that many of the players appeared to be from the islands. With the score tied at 3-3 after 10 innings, the new tie breaker rule put runners on first and second to start the 11th inning and any subsequent inning. The batter at the plate is the normal batting order batter and the runners at 2nd and 1st are the two batters before him in the batting order or their pinch-runner replacements. Predictably both teams bunted with the lead-off batter to more the runners to 2nd and 3rd to improve the likeliness of scoring at least 1 run. Both teams intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases and set-up a double play. Puerto Rico turned the double play and the Netherlands failed to score in the 11th. Puerto Rico got the sacrifice fly they needed to win 3-4. I survived the 25 inning Texas vs. Boston College game in 7 hours, 3 minutes. I also survived the longest MLB World Series game Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros 14 innings, 5 hours and 41 minutes. I survived both games in person and enjoyed every minute of each. I did see that many fans left each of those games before they were finished. I cannot imagine leaving a World Series game I paid $600.00 to attend, but many did. I did pay the price driving 3 hours back to Waco after leaving the park about 1:30 p.m. and having to be at work at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. Some minor leagues are going to experiment with a tiebreaker similar to what was used in the World Baseball Classic and that maybe best for many fans. The USA vs. Japan game was a nail-bitter all the way in the cold drizzle. I was nervous going into the championship game with Puerto Rico because the team USA starting pitcher Marcus Stroman had given up six consecutive hits to start the game when he faced Puerto Rico a week before. This time he dominated with 6 innings of no-hit ball ruined by a fan in front of me talking about the no-hitter in progress. The very next batter got a hit and the no-hitter was gone. His 10-year-old son scolded him severely about it. Even with a big lead I could never feel comfortable because I knew what a powerful offense Puerto Rico had and that they could come alive at any moment. I counted down each of the last 6 outs and finally relaxed in final victory, but it almost seemed anticlimactical after the close semifinal games. The Puerto Rico fans were the best. They traveled well, made a lot of noise for their team even when things were bleak for them in the championship game. The Japanese fans were great also, but they didn’t attend the championship game. I’m guessing they had already bought tickets, but if they attended they were not in their colors and jerseys. There weren’t a huge number of identifiable fans from the Netherlands, but they represented their country well and did attend the championship game in their colors and jerseys. A real downer for me was the inexcusable inability of the in-stadium souvenir shops to keep up with the demand for team USA stuff especially jerseys, shirts and hats. They obviously didn’t expect much from team USA because from the 1st semifinal through the end of the championship game, they never had any team USA jerseys or shirts in my size and I only saw a few of the not too attractive USA hats. Even worse, they sold out of the ugly charcoal gray USA “locker room” championship shirts in XL and larger in minutes. For the $28 they charged for those shirts, they could have preprinted a bunch of nice “locker room” shirts, eaten the ones they didn’t use (losers) and still done well financially. That’s what they have done at the CWS when I have been there and I have never had a problem getting a "locker room" championship shirt there. I live with and travel with a partner who cannot walk long distances or stand for long periods of time and the Dodgers ADA golf cart shuttle drivers couldn’t have been better. They did their best to keep up with demand, drove safely under challenging conditions and were knowledgeable about the park, the games and baseball in general. We were particularly happy with Raul who drove us back to our car after the championship game. What a fantastic experience at a bargain price considering the extremely high quality of the players and how hard they all played. I will definitely go again if I have a chance.
