The International Pastime

In my post on November 9 (toward the beginning of the Premier12 tournament), I mentioned there were two pitchers from the Mariners’ system on TeamUSA. 

Over the years as a ticket holder with the Everett AquaSox, I’ve had several opportunities to bid on and win game used autographed jerseys or caps. A bonus of having the player autograph my new treasure in person is the photo op. The furthest thing from my mind most of the time is the thought that I might be standing next to someone I’ll be watching in the big leagues someday. Honestly, I’m standing there trying to not look like a dork. I’m rarely successful at this, but I keep trying.

In spite of my looking less than stellar in the photos, I did share proof positive that I have met (for about 2 minutes) two members of 2019’s TeamUSA. A team that was vying for a spot in the Olympic Games. Wow.  

Through talent, determination, and some favorable planetary alignment, TeamUSA gave us a rollercoaster ride into the Premier12 bronze medal round. 
WBSC and USA Baseball were awesome enough to stream the games on Facebook. From November 2 through November 17, I watched two of the three TeamUSA games in the opening round and then all the Super Round games TeamUSA played in Tokyo. I took a vacation day from work so I could watch two games in one day [Pacific time zone] and get a power nap in between. Every time I thought I’d understood the playoff structure, I learned I was wrong. However, I did figure out enough by the end of the Super Round to know there was a game that was pivotal in determining whether TeamUSA would go to the bronze medal round, but in which they couldn’t control their own destiny. The Chinese Taipei national team had a lot of USA fans on November 16, knowing that Australia had to lose that game in order for the USA to battle Mexico for the Olympic berth. 

I’d like to interject here that I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve and that I have a weak verbal filter. I’m slightly more polite at the ballpark because I don’t want to enhance the vocabulary of young people and because I know that more people find me annoying than find me amusing. I’m loud. I’m sarcastic. I’m melodramatic. And that’s just my warmup routine. Many games I watch can get me wound up, but a game with significant implications and personal emotional investment does not bring out the best in me. Ask my neighbors. 

So there I was… watching TeamUSA compete against the Mexican national team for the Olympic berth. The USA never trailed in that game… until the bottom of the ninth inning when Mexico tied the game. Without going into accounts of the game and discussions about different leagues and their rules for extra inning play, we end up at the bottom of the 10th inning. 

I watched as long as my blood pressure would let me. I knew what was coming but was in denial. I ended up listening to the Mexican national team get their walk-off because my eyes were closed. 

Am I disappointed that TeamUSA did not qualify for Tokyo 2020 in this venue? Of course I am. Because they didn’t achieve that berth, was it a waste of time for me to get up at 2am or stay up until 10pm (on the same day) to watch teams teeming with players I had never heard of? 

I got to “meet” new commentators (Tyler Maun, welcome to my radar!) and hear a local commentator who made the trip to Tokyo (thanks, Ryan!). 

I was able to see some young (and not so young) players I would not have seen otherwise, some of which I’ll be seeing again someday in an MLB uniform. Jo Adell is kicking it and I wish the Mariners would find a way to acquire him that doesn’t involve losing Mitch Haniger.

I was reminded of how very passionate the Japanese are about baseball. The fan enthusiasm is amazing. If we could look half that excited, there might not be as much of a push from above to find ways to speed up the game. 

I saw Penn Murfee get a surprise start and pitch three hitless innings on the way to TeamUSA giving the Japanese team their only loss in the entire tournament. 

I watched as Wyatt Mills came in mid-game against Mexico and used two pitches to send a batter back to the dugout. 

Regrets? None. 

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Am I really that crazy (again)?

A few weeks ago, I saw on social media that two pitchers in the Seattle Mariners system were selected for TeamUSA and were off to the Premier12 qualifying rounds for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. 

Hey, cool! 

Um, wait. What does that even mean? 

Does it even matter whether I know what it means?  

At the core of Kristin’s baseball [near] obsession, being on this Premier12 bandwagon is not just about the prospect of Olympic awesomeness for the nation in which I live. It’s baseball. It’s TeamUSA. It’s Wyatt Mills and Penn Murfee. Oh, by the way... I met both the aforementioned players when they were with the Everett AquaSox. I have pictures to prove it. I’m the short one. 

 

In the Premier12 opening round (hosted in Mexico), TeamUSA defeated the Netherlands, lost to Mexico, and defeated the Dominican Republic. I was able to watch the latter two games, and even though I had no idea how wins and losses played into the results, USA won the #2 seed to the “Super Round” in Japan. 

Hey, cool! 

Um, wait. What does that even mean?

I searched the internet in pursuit of clarity on the implications of next week’s games in the context of Olympic qualification. The more I saw, the more confused I got. I consistently read that the six teams in the Super Round are vying for “potentially” two Olympic berths. 

No one is telling me the meaning of “potentially.” [Insert melodramatic gesture of frustration]

I guess I’ll find out what’s going on over the course of the next week. In the meantime, I get to watch November baseball, albeit in relative ignorance of the big picture. 

And that brings me to the “this” part of “I told you all that to tell you this.” 

The first two games that the USA is playing in Japan are at 7pm Tokyo time. I am terrible at figuring out world time zones (it involves math, after all), but I have some experience in US-Japan time difference.  

Back in March of this year, the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s opened the MLB season in Japan. That is when I learned that 7pm in Japan 19 hours ago on the US west coast. And yes, I was crazy enough to get up that early to watch those two games (and go to work afterward), but that’s a different blog post. 

So, on Monday and Tuesday, I’ll be setting my alarm for a time that most people who work a first shift job (including farmers) don’t know exists. 

On Wednesday and Friday (in Japan), the games start at 12pm, which puts first pitch at a more normal baseball time in my area (7pm the previous day). “The previous day” is an important statement here. Not only does it make the math more difficult for me, but it raises my perceived insanity to the next level. 

TeamUSA will be playing in Japan on Tuesday at 7pm and Wednesday at 12pm. In my time zone, that schedule translates into Tuesday at 2am and 7pm. Yes, two games on the same day, with approximately 20 hours between the first pitch of the first game and the last out of the second game. With an 8-hour work shift and a medical appointment on my Tuesday agenda, I see no nap gap. 

Yes, I’m crazy.

But am I that crazy?

Ask me Wednesday morning. 

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