Baseball: Canada qualifies for Beijing - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

evman150 · 03-13-2008, 01:37 PM

http://www.baseball.ca/eng_news_story.cfm?NewsID=1204

And the team...

http://www.ibaf.tv/static/team-canada.html

I have two friends on the team, so I'm really excited for them. They had a huge and emotional (benches cleared in the 6th inning) comeback win three days ago against Taiwan which saved the tournament for them. An easy win against Spain and a big win vs Korea and they're in the Olympics!

This is only the second time Canada has qualified for the Olympics in baseball. Because of the previous moronic qualifying system which saw three Euro teams but only Canada and Cuba representing the Americas in 2004, it has been really tough for Canada to qualify. Even this year was tough, with the silver medalists from Athens not qualifying (Australia). Even now there are only three teams from the Americas that have qualified (US, Canada, Cuba).

Now all Canada has to do is bring home the gold!

ricoFlame · 03-13-2008, 01:44 PM

they did well in '04, this is good news for baseball canada.

GirlySports · 03-13-2008, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

they did well in '04, this is good news for baseball canada.

They did!
I remember watching the semifinal game live and they had Cuba all the way... until a blunder at the end

. They would have murdered Australia in the final.

Sylvanfan · 03-13-2008, 02:48 PM

How did that work in the Olympics again, was it Japan who basically threw their game against Australia so they wouldnt' play Cuba in the Semi Finals and it ended up screwing over Canada? That was also when Morneau first got called up to the Twins and he had been penciled in to play for Canada until the callup too IIRC.

GirlySports · 03-13-2008, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

How did that work in the Olympics again, was it Japan who basically threw their game against Australia so they wouldnt' play Cuba in the Semi Finals and it ended up screwing over Canada? That was also when Morneau first got called up to the Twins and he had been penciled in to play for Canada until the callup too IIRC.

Don't think so but I didn't watch any of the round-robin. I just remember Japan losing 1-0 to Australia in the semis.
I also remember thinking.. this Canada-Cuba game is huge! because the winner will win gold and the loser will be 4th since Australia would lose the final Japan win the Bronze for sure.

evman150 · 03-13-2008, 03:54 PM

Here's the incident vs Taiwan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBOk...eature=related

Down 5-4 with 2 outs in the top of the 10th, with a full count, my buddy comes through with the game-tying single:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcHmo...eature=related

They say it might be the biggest win in Canadian baseball history.

GirlySports · 03-13-2008, 04:43 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvzri-RMV2g

What a great game-ending double play under pressure!

Homer announcers

phiten · 03-14-2008, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evman150

Here's the incident vs Taiwan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBOk...eature=related

Down 5-4 with 2 outs in the top of the 10th, with a full count, my buddy comes through with the game-tying single:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcHmo...eature=related

They say it might be the biggest win in Canadian baseball history.

No, Id say when they beat the Americans at the World Baseball Classic was bigger.

Cowboy89 · 03-14-2008, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phiten

No, Id say when they beat the Americans at the World Baseball Classic was bigger.

Ah yes the 'Miracle on Dirt' I remember watching that one with pride.

GirlySports · 03-14-2008, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phiten

No, Id say when they beat the Americans at the World Baseball Classic was bigger.

I dunno.

EVERYONE beat the Americans at the World Baseball Classic!

and I LOVE the into! SMOOTH!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARssvXbzdI4

Sylvanfan · 03-14-2008, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Don't think so but I didn't watch any of the round-robin. I just remember Japan losing 1-0 to Australia in the semis.
I also remember thinking.. this Canada-Cuba game is huge! because the winner will win gold and the loser will be 4th since Australia would lose the final Japan win the Bronze for sure.

Actually I think Japan tanked their last game against Australia to avoid the Canada in the semi finals now that I remember. By losing that game that they shouldn't have they set up a three way tie for 2nd between Canada, Japan, and Australia and Canada finished 4th due to run differential or something like that. I remember because Australia and Canada should have met up the Bronze medal game and Japan and Cuba should have been the Gold if you went by who really had the best teams. I think karma came back to bite Japan in the arse for trying to set up a backdoor route to the semi's. Like you said, Australia got that one great game from their pitcher to get to the gold medal game. After that happened, I knew Canada was in tough to medal.

Sainters7 · 03-14-2008, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phiten

No, Id say when they beat the Americans at the World Baseball Classic was bigger.

I've searched everywhere, is that seriously not on Youtube? Not even a little clip? Surprising...

dionfan · 03-14-2008, 04:54 PM

It was a huge surprise that the States didn't win the WBC. It was almost as if it was set up so they would. The pool they were in for the first round was thought to be arguably one of the weakest in the tourney.

Were the first round pools set up at random, or by geographical region? Cause if it was by region, then my theory might be way out of whack.

ricoFlame · 03-14-2008, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dionfan

It was a huge surprise that the States didn't win the WBC. It was almost as if it was set up so they would. The pool they were in for the first round was thought to be arguably one of the weakest in the tourney.

Were the first round pools set up at random, or by geographical region? Cause if it was by region, then my theory might be way out of whack.

they were by region, though SA was in our pool:

China, taiwan, japan, korea

canada, mexico, south africa, usa

cuba, neth, panama, puerto rico

aus, dominican, italy, venezuela.

all things considered, the pools were pretty even, or as even as they could be.

browna · 03-15-2008, 10:06 AM

Good for Canada.
Now only if the soccer team could do the same...apparently losing to Haiti for goodness sakes over the weekend in qualifying.

evman150 · 03-15-2008, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phiten

No, Id say when they beat the Americans at the World Baseball Classic was bigger.

This is a lot bigger, especially for Baseball Canada. The WBC was an exhibition series really. This is the Olympics. And plus that win didn't mean anything, cause they choked in the games against Mexico and South Africa and didn't even make it out of the first round.

Beating the Americans is in no way some "miracle". This country has produced enough talent to be able to beat any team in the world on any given day. And Canadian baseball is only getting better. More major leaguers, more players drafted, more players in college.

GirlySports · 03-16-2008, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

they were by region, though SA was in our pool:

China, taiwan, japan, korea

canada, mexico, south africa, usa

cuba, neth, panama, puerto rico

aus, dominican, italy, venezuela.

all things considered, the pools were pretty even, or as even as they could be.

Pools were even but the problem was there was no crossover. Which guaranteed that of all the latin american powerhouses, the US would have only had to face one of the them in the final. Korea beat Japan twice and still had to play them again in the semifinals! You should never have to play a team 3 times in the same tournament.

There were many problems with that tournament, mostly to ensure that the US won it