Beisbol Been Bery Bery Good to Me

First. I shed a tear when I heard that Kirby Puckett died, I did. The man was one of the few athletes I actually admired, as a player and as a representative of how the game should be played. I'm not a big fan of the Minnesota Twins, but if I had to pick my second-favorite team during the 80s and 90s it would be them because of my admiration of Kirby. The man played hard, every game, every play - and always with a smile on his face. Very few baseball players at that time (and through today) would be considered a franchise player; three I can name immediately are George Brett, Don Mattingly...and Kirby Puckett. Rest in piece, bro'.

Now let's talk about the World Baseball Classic. This is supposed to bring baseball to the forefront of the international scene, especially in light of it's exclusion from the 2010 Olympic games. It's baseball's equivalent of the World Cup, and we're all supposed to thrill and wow at the games, bringing baseball back into our hearts.

Except.

Who the fuck scheduled these games during business weeks, during business hours? I mean come on, who exactly is supposed to be able to watch Team USA vs. Team Canada at 4pm? Rich executives who can call it an early day, go to their local bar and drink a martini while watching it on a 62inch plasma screen?

I tried to "watch" Team USA's opener against Mexico, and I put that in quotes because I'm limited to watching a stat-cast of the game via the web. It's the closest I can get to actually seeing these games, but I'm such a fan of the game I'm willing.

I couldn't do it yesterday during work because I was just too swamped, but I figured - at 6pm, after a 4pm start - I could at least catch the last 3 innings. HaH! I load it up, and we're ending the 9th inning already! Damn game lasted all of 2hrs 5min!

So today I've got Cuba vs. Panama up, and it's a damn exciting game. 6-6 tie in the 11th right now...goddamn, I would LOVE to watch this game. But I can't, because of the hour it's on.

I'm not that mad about today's; it probably fits well in Panama/Cuba's time zone, but I'm likely fooling myself so I'll feel a little better about missing it. There's probably someone in Panama writing a blog about the same thing, right now.

Solidarity, brother.

Seriously, folks; how the hell am I supposed to get all excited about World Baseball if I can't watch a goddamn game? Dumb shits. This is the Round 1 schedule for Team USA:

3/7 4pm EST - Mexico vs. United States
3/8 4pm EST - Canada vs. United States
3/10 3pm EST - United States vs. South Africa

Great. Know what I do get to watch, by the time I'd get home or to a bar?
3/8 7pm EST - Italy vs. Venezuela
3/8 7pm EST - South Africa vs. Mexico

Ooo mama. Viva los Beisbol.