FanHouse Yu Darvish

LOS ANGELES -- It's all about the Wa, the forfeiture of self for the unity and harmony of the greater good, or team. You could sense Wa all around Monday night, as Japan and South Korea engaged in one of the finest back-to-basics baseball games you might ever see.

Wa was there in the sacrifice flies bringing home runners, in beautifully positioned bunts, in terrific pitching duels that caused 54,846 fans at Dodger Stadium to stand and sing for 10 fantastic innings. Fittingly, the World Baseball Classic final lasted a perfect four hours, ending with Japan beating Korea, 5-3, for the championship.

LOS ANGELES -- It's all about the Wa, the forfeiture of self for the unity and harmony of the greater good, or team. You could sense Wa all around Monday night, as Japan and South Korea engaged in one of the finest back-to-basics baseball games you might ever see.

Wa was there in the sacrifice flies bringing home runners, in beautifully positioned bunts, in terrific pitching duels that caused 54,846 fans at Dodger Stadium to stand and sing for 10 fantastic innings. Fittingly, the World Baseball Classic final lasted a perfect four hours, ending with Japan beating Korea, 5-3, for the championship.

LOS ANGELES (March 23) -- Three years since it began, nothing has changed at the World Baseball Classic.

Japan, which won the inaugural Classic in 2006, successfully defends its title, prevailing in a 5-3 extra-inning nailbiter over bitter rival South Korea on the strength of its greatest star.

Ichiro Suzuki's fourth hit in the championship game brings in the decisive runs, finishing off the Koreans for good after their stunning ninth-inning rally against Japanese phenom Yu Darvish.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

In the United States, the World Baseball Classic seems to have become little more than a nuisance to sports fans -- a not entirely welcome distraction from March Madness and a good way for some of America's best players (and some of its second-stringers) to embarrass themselves as they go through spring training in a strange uniform.

In the Far East, the Classic has become almost entirely about winning and to a similar extent about one of the better simmering international sports rivalries this side of a Brazil-Argentina World Cup qualifier.

LOS ANGELES -- Davey Johnson spent the past week eloquently explaining how desperately he wanted Team USA to win the World Baseball Classic, figuring a title would sooth America's sense of entitlement over the sport and silence some of the tournament's grumbling naysayers.

So how to explain Johnson's head-scratching managerial moves Sunday night, decisions that led to Japan beating the U.S., 9-4, in an elimination semifinal game? Why did Johnson keep starter Roy Oswalt in for a brutal pounding even after it became clear the Japanese had his number? Has the bumbling Adam Dunn mastered the vagaries of Dodger Stadium's right field yet? And any regrets over starting Captain America at shortstop, leaving Jimmy Rollins to DH?

During the inaugural World Baseball Classic three years ago, one of the biggest problems I had with the tournament was the near-complete lack of upsets in the early rounds of the tournament. Korea winning the first two rounds of pool play over Japan was mildly surprising, but since the Japanese kept advancing it didn't seem to matter. The same went for Canada's upset over the U.S.; the Americans advanced and the Canadians didn't, so the upset felt kind of hollow. It was fun to watch, but it was clear that half of the field was very overmatched

This year, however, the tournament's off to a different start. The first weekend of the tournament was full of really surprising upsets, spear-headed this morning by Korea bouncing back from a 14-2 trouncing at the hands of Japan to pull out a 1-0 win in Tokyo to win Pool A. After the jump, I'll recap all of the action from the weekend, in case you missed any of it.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

It will never be the World Cup or the Olympics. We will not rush to a computer every March to print out brackets like we do the minute the NCAA Tournament field is announced. But just because there is little chance of the World Baseball Classic becoming a transcendent international event on par with the most recognized ones on the sports calendar does not mean the event has little intrinsic value.

The WBC has plenty of haters -- no surprise there since it was an idea drummed up by Bud Selig -- but just two days into the North American portion of the tournament, it seems like they just aren't paying attention.

Chances are you were snug in your bed Thursday morning when Japanese pitching phenom Yu Darvish was introduced on the global stage. That's OK. Japan is one win away from advancing to the semifinal round of the World Baseball Classic, and should it get there. Darvish will get another start in the Classic, this time at a much more civilized hour in the Western hemisphere.

Take it from me, you shouldn't miss him the next time he toes the rubber.

If you've been waiting since October for baseball to count again, Thursday is your day. The World Baseball Classic officially kicked off in the wee hours of Thursday morning with team Japan shutting out a game China squad 4-0 behind four no-hit innings from phenom Yu Darvish.

The Japanese team might not have run up the score on China as much as people expected, but the Chinese team only managed six baserunners over the whole game and after Japan scored three runs in the third, it was over for all intents and purposes.

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Though it is being greeted largely with yawns of indifference, the World Baseball Classic is less than 24 hours away. OK, so maybe it is a far cry from Opening Day. Maybe we aren't sure how to feel about a tournament that's supposed to crown a true world champion, but is unforgiving to the point that two losses equal elimination. Maybe we don't know what to make of a tournament that is supposed to be chock full of national pride and pageantry, but is an afterthought to many of our favorite stars.