It's a hit

Mercy! The Italians crushed the Aussies, who came in fourth place in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Who knew? I thought the winners of the opening round were pretty much pre-determined, but Italia's victory shatters Pool D certainties.

Though I had been looking forward to it since its announcement, the Classic is much better than I anticipated. Watching the Dominican-Venezuela game while at work (not to worry, I had the screen split so I could work on my document, too!), I realized this tournament was bigger than most of us had expected when the flags were hoisted and the intensity rivaled a September pennant race, each batter strutting to the plate with his country's name across his chest and his heart on his sleeve. Big Papi went yard twice, swinging the lumber like he was Zeus with his lightening rods, and the boisterous fans sure treated him like a god.

When it was clear the Dominicans would take the game, I switched over to the US-Mexico game for an hour at work before heading over to the big screen at Buffalo Billiards, where I had the good fortune of getting three free beers from the waiter. (I guess he either was impressed with or felt sorry for me being a woman alone watching a baseball game in a bar. Like I said in a previous post, I don't have cable, and I need to find places to watch ESPN.) Seeing Griffey with the USA stitched across his chest was awesome, a testament to the greatness of the 12th (and moving up, insha'allah) all-time home run leader. I even found myself rooting for A-Rod, who is Herr Steinbrenner's spawn, though I wasn't impressed with the Yankee clique that separated itself from the rest of the team in the dugout and hogged up a lot of in-between-pitch television time.

I concluded my day with the Canada-South Africa game, a game that was so intense that I stayed up to watch it in its entirety. The heavy underdog South Africans nearly pulled it off, up by one with three outs to go in the ninth, but the 17 year old kid they chose to close it blew the save and disappointed all of us who were rooting for them to pull off the upset. Upsets rule, unless it's your team that is upset! Had to love that Korea-Japan game - too bad it was on in the wee morning hours so I couldn't watch.

If every day of the Classic is as good as yesterday, this is going to be one hell of a tournament.