Weblog Entry - 11/23/2008: "WORLD BASEBALL TODAY (November 23, 2008)"

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11/23/2008 Entry: "WORLD BASEBALL TODAY (November 23, 2008)"

by Bruce Baskin
Radio Miami International

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PUJOLS WINS SECOND NL MVP, PEDROIA TOPS IN AL
After a 2008 season in which he batted .357 with 37 homers and 116 RBIs, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols won his second Natinoal League Most Valuable Player trophy. A power hitter with discipline, Pujols walked 104 times and was struck out just 57 times, and committed just six errors in the field. He becomes the second Cardinals player to win two MVP awards, Hall of Famer Stan Musial being the other. Pujols has finished among the top ten in MVP balloting every season of his eight-year major league career.
In the American League, Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia easily won the MVP award, becoming the first second sacker to win the AL honor since Chicago’s Nelson Fox in 1959. Pedroia was the American League’s Rookie of the Year last year en route to winning a World Series ring with the Red Sox. He is only the third player to be voted MVP the year after winning top rookie honors, following Baltimore’s Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1983 and Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard in 2006. In 2008, the 5’9” Pedroia hit .326 with 17 homers, 20 stolen bases and 83 RBIs. He led the American League in hits, runs and doubles.

LINCECUM AND LEE WIN CY YOUNG AWARDS
San Francisco pitcher Tim Lincecum is the National League’s Cy Young Award winner for 2008, while Cleveland hurler Cliff Lee is his counterpart in the American League.
In only his second season of major league ball, Lincecum went 18-5 for Giants, who finished fourth in the NL West with a 72-90 record. Lincecum led the major leagues with 265 strikeouts over 227 innings, and his 2.62 ERA was second to New York’s Johan Santana’s 2.53 mark among league pitchers. Lincecum received 23 of 32 first-place votes.
Lee turned in an outstanding season for the 81-81 Indians in 2008, going 22-3 with 170 strikeouts and a 2.54 ERA. He led the AL in wins and ERA, threw two scoreless innings as the American League starter in the All-Star Game, and was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year for 2008 after injuries last year limited him to a 4-9 record and a demotion to the minors.

2009 USA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP SET FOR NORTH CAROLINA
USA Baseball will host the 2009 Women’s National Championships July 3-5 at the National Training Complex in Cary, NC. A minimum of six teams will take part in the only scouting opportunity USA Baseball will offer next year for the Women’s National Team.
Team USA lost the Beijing Olympics Bronze medal game to Japan in August before beating Australia for third place in the Women’s World Cup the same month in Japan.

SEIBU FINISHES YEAR WITH ASIA SERIES WIN
The Japanese champion Seibu Lions defeated the Taiwanese flag-winner President Lions, 1-0, last Sunday to win the 2008 Asia Series in the Tokyo Dome. The title game was a scoreless tie all the way to the bottom of the ninth, when Seibu won in dramatic fashion. With two out, Seibu’s Yoshihito Ishii drew a walk, then came around to score the game-winning run on Tomoaki Sato’s double. Sato went 2-for-4 with two doubles in the final game, and was named the Konami Cup MVP.
Seibu starter Hideaki Wakui scattered four hits with 10 strikeouts over 6.2 innings of work. Four national champions played in the Asia Series, which has been won by a Japanese team all four years of its existence.

PRESIDENT COMES IN SECOND IN KONAMI CUP
Despite falling short in the Asia Series final game, the President Lions have a lot to be happy about for their 2008 season. The Lions won their second consecutive Chinese Professional Baseball League pennant, and were untouched by the game-fixing problems that have led to the disbanding of two of the Taiwanese league’s six teams in the offseason.
The Lions finished 2-1 in the Konami Cup’s round-robin segment, including a 10-4 upset of the Korean champion SK Wyverns in a game that decided who would play Seibu in the final game. In that contest, Liu Fu-hao clubbed a pair of three-run homers while Kao Chih-kang and Chen Lieng-hung each knocked out solo bombs.

WYVERNS MISS OUT ON SECOND ASIA SERIES FINAL
Expectations were high for the SK Wyverns entering this year’s Asia Series. The Wyverns set a Korea Baseball Organization record for wins in a regular season and defeated the Doosan Bears in the Korean Series to reach their second consecutive Konami Cup. The Wyverns won two of three games, but were nudged out of their second consecutive finals appearance due to their loss to the Taiwan champs.
SK beat Seibu, 4-3, on the opening day of the Asia Series as Lee Jae-Won socked a tiebreaking two-run homer in the fifth inning. It was only the second loss ever for a Japanese team in Konami Cup competition, after the Wyverns knocked off Chunichi in the 2007 opener. The Wyverns then drubbed the Tianjin Lions of China, 15-0.

TIANJIN MAKES HISTORIC APPEARANCE, BUT CHINA STILL WINLESS
After three years of sending an all-star team to the Konami Cup, the China Baseball Association sent their league champion, the Tianjin Lions, for the first time, but it made no difference. In four years, no Chinese team has won a game in the Asia Series. This time around, the Lions were outscored 38-6 in three games, the closest being an opening day 7-4 loss to the President Lions. In that game, Tianjin blew an early 4-0 lead against the Taiwan champions.

CARACAS PULLING AWAY FROM VENZUELAN LEAGUE PACK
Despite losing a 6-1 contest to LaGuaira on Wednesday night, the Caracas Leones have built themselves a nice cushion in the Venezuelan League standings. Although 17-13 LaGuaira converted eight solid innings of nine-strikeout pitching by starter Brian Gordon into Wednesday’s win, they still trail 20-9 Caracas by 3.5 games in the Venezuelan standings.
Elsewhere in Caribbean ball, the 22-13 Los Mochis Caneros have a three-game lead over 19-16 Hermosillo in the Mexican Pacific League. The Naranjeros beat Mochis, 4-2, Wednesday night as veteran pitcher Juan Delgadillo turned in 6.1 shutout innings en route to his MexPac-leading fifth win for Hermosillo.
Only one game separates the top four teams in the Dominican League, with the 16-10 Cibao Gigantes holding a half-game lead over both the Licey Tigres and Este Azucareros, who are both 16-11. Cibaenas is one game back in fourth place with a 15-11 record.
And in the Puerto Rico League, Arecibo has bolted off to an 8-2 start and a 2.5-game lead over second-place Santurce, who is 6-5. Arecibo crushed Carolina Wednesday night by a 19-5 count as Washington Nationals prospect Jorge Padilla stroked a grand slam and drove in six runs.

IBAF REPS MEET WITH OLYMPIC GAMES COMMISSION
The International Baseball Federation sent six people to Lausanne, Switzerland this month to lobby the International Olympic Committee’s Program Commission for the return of baseball as an Olympic sport in 2016. Baseball will not be played in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.
Among those representing the IBAF were President Harvey Schiller, Major League Baseball International Operations VP Paul Archey and Detroit Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson, who has been conducting baseball clinics in Asia and Africa during the offseason.
The IOC will vote whether to bring baseball back next October.

BRITISH NATIONAL BASEBALLERS CRUSH UK CRICKETERS
The British National Baseball Team soundly defeated a team of English cricket players, 21-1, last month in an exhibition baseball match at the Taunton Cricket Ground in Somerset, England. The cricket team included England National Team members Ashley Giles, Geraint Jones and Marcus Trescothick.
The game was a benefit for Trescothick, who plays for Somerset’s cricket team during the summer when he’s not representing England in international matches. Trescothick himself had a good game at the plate, going 3-for-4. Ian Young cranked out a grand slam for the baseballists, while Brant Ust had four hits (including a triple that drove in the game’s first run).
Baseball is a very minor sport in England, while cricket is second to soccer in popularity among British sports fans. About 1,000 people attended the match, which was to Trescothick’s benefit obviously, but a greater potential to baseball was the wide exposure the game received in the English media.

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