イチロ ガ イチバン デシタ ヨ！！！

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (日本 10 - CUBA 6)

ICHIRO!!! ICHIRO!!! ICHIRO!!!

As I said in my post BEFORE the game, Ichiro is the MAN! (Matsui-san who???)

By his comments throughout the tournament, you could tell that he really wanted to represent Japan and you could especially see it tonight by the composed intensity and concentration he showed on the field and in the batter's box. Even the Cuban team knew they were playing with a legend as several of them were taking pictures with Ichiro after the game.

Lacking stacked MLB rosters, both Cuba and Japan played hard and with a lot of heart. Both also showed great class by congratulating each other after the game - as it should be done. I noticed that Cuba especially rides the wave of emotional momentum, almost too much, as you could tell when they rallied in the middle innings, they were super up, but, when they got behind, they got way too down. All in all though, the whole atmosphere was like a World Little League Championship for BIG KIDS - which made it VERY exciting!

As for the US team, that kind of "Little League" passion was certainly lacking in its money-talking (and sometimes steroid totting) baseball world. I guess the World will now consider this "proof" that we are no longer the center of the baseball universe anymore...which may actually be a good thing for the "game."

Now back to: イチロ!!! イチロ!!! イチロ!!!

Read more about Ichiro, Oh-san, missing Matsui, Japan and Cuba, and Umpiring here: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11934229/.