Thursday 5th March to Monday 23rd March 2009

x

VENUES

Tokyo ... Japan
Mexico City ... Mexico
Toronto ... Canada
San Juan ... Puerto Rico
San Diego ... California USA
Miami ... Florida USA
Los Angeles ... California USA

Australia's campaign starts in Mexico
on Sunday 8th March 2009

WBC News Release
Includes complete tournament details ... dated 24th March 2008

Tournament Bracket
Game by game explanation of the Tournament, including the 'how-and-when' teams are eliminated

Jon Deeble to lead an All Star Coaching Staff into 2009 WBC Campaign
This article includes full details on the Australian Team Officials ... Jon Deeble, Phil Dale, Tony Harris, Paul Elliott, Graeme Lloyd and Pat Kelly

Roneberg eyes national duty
An article published in The Cairns ... Brett is interviewed and speaks about both Queensland's and his own performance during the 2009 Claxton Shield and the Tournament details can be seen HERE ... he also mentions his hopes of being selected into the World Baseball Classic Team

The Australian Squad
This was selected following the 2009 Claxton Shield Tournament and announced on Tuesday 20th January 2009
..............The final team is to be selected on Tuesday 24th February 2009
..............Brett is listed with the Outfielders

Australia takes on the rest of the World
This article was published as the Australian Team departed for two Exhibition Games in Japan and following a nine game series against Taiwan, the details of which are below

The Australian Roster
Brett's official 'Notification' and 'Congratulations' from the Australian Baseball Federation
"It is with much pleasure that I write to inform you that you have been selected in the Australian National Team to participate in the 2009 World Baseball Classic"

The Australian Roster
The complete list of players to compete in the Classic and this was released on Tuesday 24th February 2009
..............Brett is listed with the Outfielders

The Australian Roster
Announcement from the Australian Baseball Federation and Baseball Queensland Web Sites ... and an article published in The Cairns Post

The Australian Roster
An article from the Baseball Victoria Web Site

The Australian Roster
A chart from Flintoff and Dunn's Australian Major League Baseball web site ... it includes details and comments on each of the players

Australia and it's Opponents in Pool "B"
A comprehensive look at the South African, Mexican, Cuban and Australian Teams ... from the "Mister Baseball" and "SportsNet Canada" web sites

Australia and it's Opponents in Pool "B"
A comprehensive look at the South African, Mexican, Cuban and Australian Teams ... from the "World Baseball Classic" web site ... and this page includes a short video on the Mexican team, who are Australia's first opponent

Australia and it's Opponents in Pool "B"
A comprehensive look at the South African, Mexican, Cuban and Australian Teams ... from the "Baseball World" web site ... and Brett is mentioned

Australia and it's Opponents in Pool "B"
A comprehensive look at the South African, Mexican, Cuban and Australian Teams

The Australian Roster
The Australian players ... includes comments and a prediction ... from the "Examiners Web Site of Independent Writers" ... and Brett is mentioned

The Australian Roster
The Australian players ... from the "World Baseball Classic" web site ... discusses minor/major league players only

Gastro continues to slow some of our guys down

The gastro bug has hit hard, with many players and office staff going down
We showered after the game and were escorted to the tarmac, where we were searched, passports checked and put on the plane
Roneberg spent the whole trip in the bathroom vomiting
There were a few up the front that weren't any better
Arrived safely in Mexico and got to the hotel - nice suites with plenty of room
The boys are pretty tired
They had a quick bite to eat and are all off to bed
Training tomorrow at 1.00pm
We will leave the hotel at 11.00am - we are told it is not that far away, but lots of traffic
Hopefully we have enough boys on the track to get some work in

Hi, and well, the trip down here was miserable to say the least!!
Spent a lot of the trip in the bathroom and just as we landed it came out 'thick and fast'
I still don't feel 100% ... but a lot better than I did over the last two days
I don't know if I'm going to play ... but will tell them I am ready to go
Just have to wait and see

Will we be subscribing ??

You can bet on it !!

click on the logo opposite for more details

Game One

CLICK HERE

Comments from Players and Team Officials
and these were after the game against Mexico
and before the game against Cuba

CLICK HERE

Game Two

CLICK HERE

Game Three

CLICK HERE

Press
Conference

CLICK HERE

PHOTOS

CLICK HERE

---

Ichiro lifts Japan to Classic glory
After Korea ties it, Japan successfully defends it's title in extra innings

It was one of those games for the ages that will certainly grow in proportion with the passage of time

One game, winner takes all for the second World Baseball Classic
A game at Dodger Stadium on Monday night that had more twists and turns than kabuki
The Japanese essentially had to win it twice

"That was as much intensity as you've seen in a baseball game in a long time" Commissioner Bud Selig said after the agonizingly four-hour spectacular ended with Japan besting rival Korea, 5-3, in 10 innings
"It was incredible ... it was really amazing"

And so the Japanese are the Champions once again, successfully defending their 2006 title

This time they can thank old faithful Ichiro Suzuki for the victory
The 35-year-old Mariners right fielder snapped a 3-3 tie with a two-run single on an eight-pitch at-bat against right-handed reliever Chang Yong Lim with runners on second and third and two outs in the tenth innings

Daisuke Matsuzaka was named MVP for the second consecutive Classic
He was 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA in this year's tournament, and he's 6-0 with a 1.95 ERA overall
In three years, Matsuzaka has won the Classic twice, the Classic MVP twice and the 2007 World Series as a member of the Red Sox
Try putting that all into perspective

"It's not something that everybody can experience, and it's not something that everybody can earn" said Matsuzaka, who defeated Team USA on Sunday night to put his country into the final game
"So I feel that I'm very lucky ... I'm really thankful about the MVP ... I didn't think that it was going to be me at all"

The Japanese figured that the victory was secured in the eighth inning, when Akinori Iwamura gave them a 3-2 lead with a sacrifice fly, coming after Seiichi Uchikawa was moved to third on Atsunori Inaba's double

But the Koreans tied the score, 3-3, in the bottom of the ninth inning against hard-throwing 22-year-old Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish, who was brought in at the start of the inning to try and preserve Japan's one-run lead and the victory
Japan manager Tatsunori Hara actually let left-hander Toshiya Sugiuchi go out for warmups before striding to the mound to call for Darvish - all part of the usual Asian gamesmanship
He lifted Sugiuchi with two Korean left-handed hitters coming up, because "in the bullpen, the pitcher who was the best is the one I picked ... that's why I picked him" Hara said

It ultimately worked out, but not without a lot of trepidation

Darvish was erratic, striking out the leadoff hitter, Keun-Woo Jeong, and then walking Hyun-Soo Kim and Tae Kyun Kim on nine pitches to put runners on first and second with one out
Darvish then struck out Shin-Soo Choo, who earlier in the game had homered
But Bum Ho Lee singled to left, driving in the tying run

"I had a great opportunity in a game like this" Lee said
"I regret a little bit that we could not win"

The Koreans had their chance, but Young Min Ko then whiffed to end the inning with the winning run on second

The game was played in front of a raucous crowd of 54,846, which set an all-time single-game Classic attendance record in the 78th game over the course of the first two tournaments
For the three games at Dodger Stadium, the crowds totaled 141,834 and the overall attendance for the tournament for 39 games was 801,408
Both were also new Classic records

The fans, banging dueling orange and blue Thunderstix all night long, reacted to the ebb and flow of the game with incredible thunder and enthusiasm as the 48-year-old facility literally shook up and down when Korea scored that ninth-inning run

"When I think about what we set out to do years ago, this is what we had in mind" Selig said
"Through all the years and all the conversations, it all crystallized in these moments"

Like the Yankees and Red Sox in the U.S., the Koreans v the Japanese has turned into the preeminent baseball rivalry on the international scene
It was the fifth time in this Classic that the Asian nations had met, with the two teams splitting the first four games - two in each of the first two rounds

"I believe after all this, we are the best two teams in the world" said Jung Keun Bong, Korea's starting pitcher on Monday night
It may be hard to argue
Dating back to the '06 Classic, the Japanese and Koreans have met eight times
Three years ago, Korea won the first two games, but then was eliminated by the Japanese, 6-0, in the semifinal at San Diego's PETCO Park
Japan went on to defeat Cuba in the final game and win the inaugural Classic, but that 10-6 victory didn't have the drama or intensity of Monday night's epic

It seemed only fitting that for Japan, it would come down to Ichiro at the end
The first and most successful Japanese position to player to come to the US
Darvish became the winner, because Ichiro just wouldn't give in during his climatic at-bat
There was apparently some confusion between the Korean bench, catcher Min-ho Kang and Lim, who was told to pitch carefully to Ichiro before giving up the single, but apparently missed the sign
Kang, 23 years old, had just come into the game an inning earlier
"They did not convey signals well" Korean manager In-Sik Kim said
"The catcher understood the signs, but the pitcher didn't understand it very well
It was not to try to walk him, but to throw him a ball
If it did not work, then we would walk him
That was the strategy ... so the pitcher and catcher did not communicate well ... that hurt us in the end"

Asked with the crowd roaring on every pitch if he was able to take a Zen approach at the plate, clearing everything from his mind as he faced Lim with the championship on the line, Ichiro chuckled
"I really wish I could've been in a state of Zen" he said
"But I thought about a whole lot of things ... I kept thinking of all these things I shouldn't think about ... usually when that happens, I can't really hit ... but I was able to hit ... so I felt like I may have surpassed something in myself"

Great players are able to overcome such obstacles to accomplish great things

And so it came to pass that way on a memorable night that will only grow in the glow of history

The Australian Team

Batting and Pitching

--CLICK HERE--

WBC Round One (all sixteen teams)

Batting

--CLICK HERE--