Jorge Cantu hit a RBI-single against the United States; Chipper Jones walked off  the field after Mexico's worldproud win.

Before 12.:00am today, I do not believe there stands JUSTICE. Now, it is JUSTICE. Only JUSTICE could turn things around like that. No words or sentences can well express my feeling right now. I just thank Him if there unknown devinity really exists. I now believe.

Let America knows the World is not belong to them.

Paragraphs hereinafter are cited from the MLB.com's message board (maybe) after Asian's outstanding play in WBC, a good article, really, now which means I must withdraw all my "Goodbye"s rendered last night.

 WBC fever, caught it

It's a quarter after 4 am in Japan and I still can't get to sleep. I guess I am still excited. A half-day after what Ichiro defined as the most humiliating day in his baseball career has found the glory on S.Korea. Well for him, it is. But to me, totally opposite. 

I think it was in early 90's, I was talking to some older man in his 60's at my work. It was at the Denso firm in Carson, CA and he was a security guard there. He usually seemed alright and was nice to me. But one day I started talking about baseball and before I made any statement, he jumped on me and started bashing. He said Japanese baseball was nothing more than a AAA ball. I did not say anything to heat up the conversation but he just kept on erupting telling me that Japanese couldn't play baseball. He seemed angry somehow (for no apparent reason). 

I knew at that time Japanese were better than AAA. I knew that the All American team came to Japan in 1990 and won only 3 out of 8 against Japan. The team was supposed to be a dream team including Bonds, Alomar, Fielder, Griffy Jr. and so on. MLB team would come once in awhile and play in Japan and they did not do that well. And they always came up with excuses. They'd say because of that and this, they were not playing well. 

That guy at my work probably born in 1930's, kept on pushing me to the corner. He said Japanese would never make it to MLB. And few years later, Nomo came to LA. I was reading LA Times Sports pages from left to right to look for anything about Nomo in that spring. There weren't much though. One day I found Dave Wallace's (LA coach) comment about Nomo. He said Nomo was going to be OK. And I went what? What does he mean Nomo is going to be OK? 

One April day in SF, Nomo took the mound for the first time. I was at home in Reseda, CA, listening to the radio. I was going nuts that Nomo's first pitch was being thrown in SF and there was no TV coverage. But I was really excited. I remember the first pitch. The hole he got into and how he got out of it. The moment, I will never forget. Soon after, there was the Nomo mania. He made a history and proved Japanese are to be noticed in the game.

I left LA and came back to Tokyo in 1996 realizing that I would not have a chance in USA. And I hoped that someday, Americans would realize the world does not belong to them. I saw the possibility the Japanese ball players could do. So I was hoping that more Japanese would cross the pacific to meet MLB. 

I have been promoting the world cup of baseball for years now. I collected all the data from potential countries and made the chart, uploaded anywhere and demanded it. Now in 2006, it was finally materialized. My expectation fulfilled. Japan vs. USA. Everybody saw that. I know that USA team wasn't ready for this. They are a bunch of spoiled millionaires that didn't see what was coming. Loss to Canada was supposed to be a wake-up call. Then all he// broke loose. 

The bad call. I was in front of TV and watched it all. I was not particularly surprised to see the ump calling it out. I lived in the States for 14 years and I know how Americans are. I don't have to complain for that is only their problem. Many Americans don't think it is OK to win that way and asked themselves why. But I understood. I also understand that this would be talked about for long time to come and the world has the view that Americans don't see. But then again, I could care less. It's not my problem. It was good enough that we almost nailed USA. 

USA off course, not playing up to their potential. Due to the mentality that they could win anytime anyway. Or because of the fear to get hurt. Whatever. I know they will come back next time prepared. It could be just few days or few years. 

Japan now 1-2 in the round 2 and probably will come home empty handed. But it's been so meaningful to me that I couldn't appreciated more. And I'm also so glad the S.Korea is kicking butt. And more importantly, I see the American fans now realizing that Asian can compete in this game. It was mere 15 years ago that Americans laughed at Japanese baseball making fun of it. Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck showed the views of Americans. They will find anything that they can laugh at, but now they can't laugh at the baseball in Asia. It is good for us, but it is also good for America that it is a lesson to learn. Americans invented this great game and should be proud of it. But there is no end to learning ever.