Japan champion of the 2009 World Baseball Classic!

I'm Korean and was yelling hysterically at the TV and, in the bottom of the 9th inning, I even thought we might have a chance, but Japan deserved every bit of it. 15 hits against 5, we were overmatched gloriously by their players. That the score was only 5 to 3 is evidence of the lack of luck by the Japanese hitters.

And to compensate for the huge difference in talent, we pitched poorly, made wrong decisions at the wrong moments and were too proud to walk a great hitter like Ichiro with 2 in scoring position, 1st base open and 2 men out.

It was a difficult game for us Koreans to watch. It felt like Japan had baserunners in every inning. It was pressure and more pressure on the defense and the pitcher. Nevertheless, we actually had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 9th inning. But, had we won, it would have been a huge injustice to baseball. Japan deserved to win. They played better tonight and they have a stronger and bigger pool of talent to choose from.

But the 2009 WBC was interesting for these two teams. They played a total of 5 games against each other (Japan had 3 wins against 2 from Korea) and they only lost to each other. Every other game they played was kind of a blowout.

I guess it does say something about the evolution of the sport in those countries. Congrats to both and mainly to Japan, those motherfuckers.