Master Index of Archived Threads


WBC IGT: Italian Americans v. Dominican Republic 3/9/06

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:12 PM

Oliver Perez pitching for the Dominicans. Giarratano on second. Menechino tried to advance him to third but failed. Catalanotto at bat, with Piazza (I think) on deck. Catalanotto with a single up the middle! 1-0 Italy!

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:14 PM Edited 8 time(s), most recently on Mar 09 2006 01:55 PM

Lineups Italy 1. Giarratano, SS 2. Menechino, 2B 3. Catalanotto, LF 4. Piazza, DH 5. Sinisi, CF 6. Pascucci, 1B 7. Saccomanno, 3B 8. Gregorrio, C 9. Delucchi, RF P: Tony Fiore, RHP Dominican Republic 1. J. Reyes, SS 2. P. Polanco, 2B 3. A. Pujols, 1B 4. D. Ortiz, DH 5. M. Alou, LF 6. A. Beltre, 3B 7. J. Encarnacion, CF 8. W. Pena, RF 9. R. Paulino, C (Pittsburgh farm system) P: Oliver Perez, LHP

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:16 PM

Piazza fouls out on the first pitch he sees. ugh. And Sinisi ground out to Jose Reyes at short to end the inning.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:17 PM

Reyes takes the first two pitches he sees--2-0. Now he hits a foul ball down the right field line.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:18 PM

Reyes with a ground ball base hit!

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:21 PM

Sacamano with a throwing error on a ground ball by Polanco. Everyone's safe--runners on 1st & 2nd for Pujols.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:25 PM

Ugh. Saccomanno bobbles a grounder by Pujols, then rushes a throw to second which goes into right field. Pujols get tied up between 1st & 2nd in a run-down, and Polanco broke home. They tried to get Polanco at home, but yet another bad throw allowed Pujols to make second. Pujols called out for running outside the basepaths. Ortiz up with the bases empty. 1 out.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:29 PM

Ortiz fouls off a couple tough pitches by Fiore and works out a walk. Alou up. Fiore must be pretty fucking crabby right now. John Franco is the pitching coach for Italy! Who knew?

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:30 PM

Fiore (Baltimore prospect) afraid to throw strikes now that his defense has been exposed. Alou walks.

Yancy Street Gang Mar 09 2006 01:35 PM

Rotblatt wrote: John Franco is the pitching coach for Italy! Who knew? Do these teams really need pitching coaches? Their duties have to be pretty minimal, like counting pitches and dialing the bullpen.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:37 PM

Beltre with a pop up to center, and the next batter (missed who) ground out to short to end the inning. Tough inning for Fiore. So Fiore's not exactly a prospect--33 YO. Career Minor League 1,105.1 IP, 3.62 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, 5.97 K/9, 4.13 BB/9, 0.17 HR/9 MLB 37 IP, 4.39 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 5.58 K/9, 4.51 BB/9, 1.07 HR/9

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:39 PM

Pascucci grounds out to third. Saccomanno K's--apparently it was particularly ugly.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:40 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: ="Rotblatt"]John Franco is the pitching coach for Italy! Who knew? Do these teams really need pitching coaches? Their duties have to be pretty minimal, like counting pitches and dialing the bullpen. I suppose technically they should be doing some of the scouting and figuring out the opponent's weaknesses, right?

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:40 PM

Gregorio struck out looking. 2-1 Dominican heading into the top of the second.

Edgy DC Mar 09 2006 01:41 PM

I'd imagine Italy needs a pitching coach more than most.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:46 PM

Pena with a single. Paulino grounds to Saccomono, who throws high to second, but they manage to turn the double play anyway. Reyes swinging at the first pitch again to foul it off. Reyes swings at the second pitch too and grounds out to end the inning.

Frayed Knot Mar 09 2006 01:46 PM

Q: Is Galante retarded for starting Reyes over Tejada?

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:49 PM

Paulino's a 24 YO catcher who took a while getting out of A & then AA, but in his first crack at AAA last year, he did very well: 273 AB, .315 AVG/.372 OBP/.538 SLG/.910 OPS Minor League Totals: 2228 AB, .279 AVG/.339 OBP/.432 SLG/.771 OPS He got a cuppa last year and went 2-4 with a walk.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:51 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Q: Is Galante retarded for starting Reyes over Tejada? I guess Galante's doing the same think Team America did yesterday--giving the stars a rest. Hopefully it won't come back to haunt them . . .

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:53 PM

Giarratano with a one-out walk, then Menechino laces a ball to the wall for a double! Game is tied 2-2!

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:54 PM

Catalanotto with a line drive past a diving Alou! Catalanotto makes it to second and Menechino scores to give Italy the lead! Piazza up.

MFS62 Mar 09 2006 01:55 PM

He can't bat cleanup for that club? Later

Yancy Street Gang Mar 09 2006 01:55 PM

I find that I'm rooting against Italy, the home of my ancestors and the site of my best-ever vacation. The reason is because it's a team of ringers. I doubt that more than a handful of people back "home" in Florence or Naples is even aware that this series is being played. Go Dominican Republic!

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 01:56 PM

Piazza sounds totally out of his game. He swung at the first pitch and ground out to third. The announcers said he's pulling off the ball. WP by Perez and Menechino moves to third.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 02:00 PM

Sinisi with a checked swing strikeout to end this half of the inning. Dominican's had better break out that lumber. Note that Polanco is in there instead of Soriano--it's not just Tejada who's sitting out. Fiore's got a killer HR/9 ratio--that'll come in handy against the DR. I'm rooting for the DR too, Yance, but I really want Piazza to do well. Doesn't look promising on that front.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 02:02 PM

Polanco with a single, and Pujols crushes one! 4-3 Dominicans! So much for the low HR/9!

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 02:05 PM

Ortiz walks. Fiore's almost at his pitch limit with Alou at the plate.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 02:05 PM

Franco visits the mound and whatever he says works--double play to the shortstop.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 02:08 PM

Fiore hits Beltre with a pitch, and that's the end of the line for Fiore.

MFS62 Mar 09 2006 02:12 PM

Is he related to Mike Fiore, a first baseman who once played for the O's? Later

Frayed Knot Mar 09 2006 03:12 PM

Or maybe Fiore Gino Tennaci who used to play for the A's. You may have known him as Gene Tenace. With a name like that even I would have been OK if he were an Italian ringer - even though born in Russelton, PA

Willets Point Mar 09 2006 03:21 PM

I'm hoping there's an Irish team for the next WBC and I can qualify under the great-grandchild clause. I mean I'd totally suck, but it would be fun.

MFS62 Mar 09 2006 03:23 PM

Frayed Knot wrote: Or maybe Fiore Gino Tennaci who used to play for the A's. You may have known him as Gene Tenace. He was listed on some rosters as "Fury" Gene Tenace. Later

MFS62 Mar 09 2006 03:25 PM

EDIT; dupe post

metirish Mar 09 2006 03:41 PM

]I'm hoping there's an Irish team for the next WBC and I can qualify under the great-grandchild clause. I mean I'd totally suck, but it would be fun. You'll have to become a citizen I think.

Rotblatt Mar 09 2006 03:53 PM

Well, I missed most of the last half of the game, but Beltre hit another HR, and Alou hit a dinger as well. Dominican Republic wins 8-3! Piazza ground out to deep short in his last at bat and Reyes made an apparently dazzling play to get him. Announcer #1 immediately labeled it "the play of the game."

Willets Point Mar 09 2006 04:03 PM

metirish wrote: ]I'm hoping there's an Irish team for the next WBC and I can qualify under the great-grandchild clause. I mean I'd totally suck, but it would be fun. You'll have to become a citizen I think. And a baseball player. But let me fantasize.

Nymr83 Mar 09 2006 04:35 PM

metirish wrote: ]I'm hoping there's an Irish team for the next WBC and I can qualify under the great-grandchild clause. I mean I'd totally suck, but it would be fun. You'll have to become a citizen I think. Not according the BS rules in which you must have been born there or even had a parent born there, there are apparently other ways in as well... essentially the idea is that there arent 16 strong baseball countries in the world so they needed to make a few up with weird eligibility rules.

seawolf17 Mar 09 2006 04:37 PM

I believe the rule is that you need to be eligible for citizenship in that country, by that country's rules. Some of them are complicated, but just about anyone with a parent or grandparent who was a citizen is pretty much eligible. MLB didn't make that up, it comes from the participating nations.

metirish Mar 09 2006 04:37 PM

You're right Nymr83, but I think baseball Ireland won't let you play for them unless you are a citizen, of course getting that is not that hard.

Nymr83 Mar 09 2006 07:16 PM

Yes but there is a huge huge difference between being a citizen (no matter how easy a given country allows you to become one) and being "eligible" to become a citizen... I once read that under Israel's "law of return" something like 1/10th of the American population would be eligible for citizenship (though in most cases because of their blood relation or marriage to someone who is themself only part-jewish) maybe Israel should determine who some of these people are and field their own team of ringers next time around, they'll have the distinction of having never set foot in the country they are playing for... something I'd bet a few players on the Italian or South African teams are also "guilty" of. If it were up to me (yeah its not, they'd rather leave these decisions in the hands of morons) I'd say "citizens only."