Sorry I have not put up a post in a couple days, but the end of these tournaments always get busy.  I ended up staying long days at the ballpark on both Monday and Tuesday as I umpired both those days at 2 PM and then stayed after the game to watch the 7 PM game.
On Monday was the semifinals.  Cuba played the USA in an almost 4.5  hour crazy long game.  I was on the plate, and when the USA starting scoring runs early, team Cuba started some delay tactics to slow the game down, and the USA started some chirping at the Cuban players because of that.  I tried my best to stop both the chirping and the delay tactics by telling the USA team to knock it off and at the same time let Cuba know that I was not happy with the delays, as I did not want let the game get  out of hand.  After that both the chirping and delay tactics (for the most part) were not an issue.  In International baseball game management is the biggest part of the game.  If you are not on your toes keeping on top of things, things can get crazy in a hurry.
In the 2nd inning I had a very close play at the plate where the USA player made a good slide to avoid the tag and get his hand in before the Cuban catcher could tag him.  The Cuban catcher did not agree, and showed me up a little, and from that point on continued to show me up on any pitch within a foot of the strike zone.  They eventually brought in a new catcher later in the game.
USA went ahead and took a 12-2 lead early in the game, and even with that large of lead, you knew that Cuba could put up runs up in bunches, so I tried to make sure I stayed focused and did not let myself to relax just because of the large lead.  Sure enough the Cubans started to chip away at the Americans lead, and next thing you know, it is the 9th inning and the score is 12-10.  Cuba went 3 up and 3 down in the bottom of the 9th and USA won 12-10.  It felt like I had seen 1000 pitches that game, but I am sure it was closer to 700… hehe :)
I was very happy with my game.  That was the biggest game of my umpiring career and I know I left it all out there on the field.  I know I was not perfect, but nobody is.
I stayed and watched my good friend and roommate Randy Bruns umpire the other semifinal between Canada and Mexico.  Randy umpired AAA ball many moons ago as he would say, and you can tell he has that experience with the way he carries himself on the field.  He has a very calm mannerism  about himself, yet you know that he is in control of that game.  Canada won that game 5-3.  So that setup the next day’s games.  It would be Canada vs the USA in the gold medal game, and Cuba vs Mexico in the bronze medal game.
I got the bronze medal game at 2nd base with my good friend Jhonatan Parra from Venezuela on the Plate.  Jhonatan is only 24 years old but is great umpire and a really great person.  His full time job is working in the Venezuelan Professional league.   During the game though Jhonatan starting feeling like something was wrong, and started seeing spots in his eyes during the game.  So in about the 7th inning we switched from a 6 man crew to a 4 man crew and brought in the backup umpire (always the 1st base umpire) Arnaldo  from Puerto Rico to finish the game on the plate, I rotated over to 1st and finished the game there.  The only issue was that Arnaldo had broken his finger in 2 places a few days earlier, and still had his finger in a splint.  I was worried that he would get another ball in that finger, but luckily he did not and finished the game. Cuba won 6-0.  It was nice to see Arnaldo get to see some pitches as he broke his finger on the first pitch of the game, so he had only seen 1 pitch in the entire Pan Am games up to that point.  Jhonatan went to the hospital as they checked his blood pressure and it was extremely high.  They gave him an IV at the hospital for a while and then sent him home.  They say he did not eat enough that day and the heat were factors to why his blood pressure went so high.  Because Randy and I stayed to watch the Gold Medal game, we did not know how Jhonatan was until we got back to the hotel last night near 11 PM.  We were glad to see he was doing okay.
The Gold Medal game had Mexican umpire Jesus Lopez umpire on the plate, and he did a great job.  He is also very young and very talented umpire.  All the Mexican umpires we very young and very well trained.  They all umpire in the Mexican Professional league, and from what I can tell that is their full time job.  Canada won the game 2-1 and won the Gold Medal for the first time in Pan American Games history.  Cuba has been the Gold Medal winner for the last 43 years winning 10 Gold Medals in a row.  The only other time Canada has won a Medal at the Pan Am games was 1999 in Winnipeg when Canada won Bronze.
So today (Wednesday) I am typing this post from the plane on the way home, and have been able to reflect on the last 9 days.   This has defiantly been the most amazing umpiring experience of my life.  Meeting all these new lifetime umpire friends that even though most of them did not speak the same language as me, we were able to communicate because we are brothers in umpiring and have the universal language of baseball.  I was sad to leave me new friends but I do miss home and my wife and 2 boys.  They have also made a great sacrifice for me to be here and never complain about it, and I really appreciate that.
To the city and people of Lagos De Moreno.  What a great place, and great people.  The city is beautiful and the people treated us with open arms.  I think they thought Randy and I were crazy wearing shorts and a t-shirt when they were wearing winter jackets and pants.  I am sure they will be stories years later saying do you remember those two white guys during the Pan Am games wearing shorts when it was so cold.  I remember before coming here, I was not sure what to expect because I had heard all the stories about the dangers in Mexico, and I was not even sure if I would be able to leave my hotel.  I soon came to realize that even though the streets were filled with police and army with very large machine guns, they were only here to protect us from a danger that did not exist.  The issues in Mexico are more to the north near the border.  Yes there is crime and violence elsewhere, but so is there violence and crime in any North American city.
Well in summary, I was very greatful for this opportunity and I wanted to do my best to make the most out of this opportunity…. I am proud to say I think I did that.
Rob

Yesterday I had the late game at 1st base between USA and Mexico.  Mexico won the game 3-2, and it was an amazing game to be a part of.  The crowd was even more crazy than before as they really wanted to beat the USA.  I had a couple really close plays at 1st, that I think I guess right, and Jhonatan Parra from Venezuela had a great game on the plate.  He did eject one of the USA players for arguing balls and strikes, which I think is our only ejection of the tourney so far.  The Puerto Rico umpire Arnaldo Roman umpired 3rd base even though his finger is broken in two spots.
So tomorrow the semifinals are Cuba vs USA and Mexico vs Canada.  The winners go to the Gold Medal game and the losers go to the Bronze Medal Game on Tuesday.  I umpire the game at 2 PM between Cuba and USA on the plate.  I am very excited about this assignment.  Very big game DFU.
Today was out day off so 4 of us took a bus to Guadalajara (about 2 hours away) to go sightseeing.  We went to the Athletes Village first and looked around.  Then we went to the main stadium where a soccer match was about to start  between Cuba and Argentina.  We just took some photos of the inside of the stadium and then left.  We then went to the softball stadium and watched the end of the Gold Medal game between USA and Canada.  USA won 11-1.  We watched the Medal ceremony and then went down and said hi to some of the softball umpires.  After that we went to the gymnastics stadium next door and watched the men practicing.  Then went to Burger King for lunch and made the trip back to Lagos De Moreno and got back around 6 PM.
I will upload some more photos to Facebook later tonight.

Rob

Yesterday I umpired the left field line in the Mexico vs Dominican Republic game.  The game was great, and Mexico won 3-2.  Tonight Mexico plays the USA for battle of 1st place in the pool.  The winner will play Canada in the playoff round, and the loser will play Cuba. I am umpiring 1st base in that game., it should be another good one.  Earlier yesterday there was a game between Puerto Rico and Cuba, and the game was tied after 9 innings, so they went to the international tie breaker rule.  So in the top of the 10th Puerto Rico scored 2 runs to go up 7-5, and then in the bottom of the 10th inning with 2 out and bases loaded, the Cuban batter hit it down the left field line.  The left fielder chased the ball and tried to make a diving catch at the fence near the fair/Foul line.  The ball touched the end of the glove just on the line in fair territory, and then ball deflected off the glove and lands in foul territory.  The Mexican 3rd base umpire Christian Lopez called the ball correctly fair as it hit the glove in fair territory.  The Left fielder was injured on the dive as he hit the wall in the corner, and was not able to get up.  All the runners on base scored and Cuba won the game 8-5.  Puerto Rico went nuts, arguing the call.  They have 50 inch TV’s in the umpire and score keepers area.  They showed the replay and it showed the umpire made the correct call.  Even though they have TV’s, we cannot use instant replay for any calls.  It is a different feeling knowing cameras are filming the games and that every call you make can be played over and over again on instant replay.  It puts a pressure on you that I had never experienced before.
Tomorrow(Sunday) we get a day off.  They have arranged a bus for us to go to Guadalajara for the day.  It is about a 2.5 to 3 hour bus ride to Guadalajara but it should be fun.  As much as I think the city of Lagos De Moreno is great, I am really looking forward to this trip.  Here it seems like we’re are only at a baseball tourney not an multi-sport event that the Pan American games is.  We watch TV coverage from Guadalajara but it will be nice to see it in person.
Well, my bus leaves in just over an hour to go to the game tonight, so time to relax and get my stuff together.

I have stopped adding photos to this site because my internet connection is not very good and it seems to take forever.  Putting the photos on facebook seems to be much faster to download.  So I have been added them to facebook instead.

Rob

Yesterday I umpired the USA vs Dominican Republic at 3rd base in the 2PM game.  The USA started the game with a leadoff home run, and it did not get much better from there.  It was 10-0 going into the bottom of the 7th and all we needed was 3 out and the game would be over on the run spread rule, but of course USA makes 2 errors allowing the Dominican Republic score 2 unearned runs.  So we go into the bottom of top of the 8th and USA scores 10 runs to go up 20-2, which ended up being the final score after 8 innings.  A very long game in the heat of the day.  The good thing was that as the game went on, the grandstand shaded the infield.  By the 4th inning I was in the shade, and by then end of the game the entire infield was in the shade.  During the game a military helicopter circled the stadium flying lower than the top of the lights but always around the field never over.  Every so often the helicopter would leave and then come back.  I was trying not to look at it and just pay attention to the game, but it was in the back of my mind a little as you could see the soldiers holding rifles and machine guns.
The weather here has been great so far.  The altitude here is over 6000 ft, so it does get cool at night and mornings feel cool and crisp.  Locals and all the umpires besides Randy and I seem to complain that it is cold, but find it very comfortable.  I umpire tonight, and they all want to wear jackets and I didn’t even bring a jacket, so I think I am going to borrow the Cuban umpires Jacket as he is a big guy too, but I am sure I am going to be too warm.  People on the streets give Randy and I some strange looks, now there can be many reasons for this, but I think the main reason is that we are wearing shorts and a t-shirt walking around town, and everyone one else is wearing warm jackets.  Some of the other reasons I get looks is because I don’t think they have many Mexicans that are over 6 feet tall.  Some people smile and say to me mucho alto, or Grande.  Which means very tall or big, but everyone seems very friendly with us. And lastly we are the only white guys in town. :)  Last night Randy(USA), Jonathan(Venezuela), Alan(Mexico), and I went to a small bar near the hotel for a beer.  The bar was about 12 feet by 12 in size, and had about 7-8 other people in it.  Well it turns out the 2 of the men in the bar are Americans that come down lots during the year and were in town because of the baseball.  They have houses in the USA but also have houses in Mexico.  They said they have relatives that also live in Lagos De Moreno that they come to visit.  Well they started talking  to us and talking about baseball and other things, and then they would not let us pay, they kept buying the rounds for us.  Everyone in the bar seemed very happy to have us there.  One of the other guys starting singing opera to the music that he had picked out of the jukebox.  He had an unbelievable voice, and it was a culture experience like none other than I had experienced before.  I think we will go back there again one time again when we don’t have a night game.  I am sure it will be the same 7-8 guys in the bar again.
This morning (Friday) the umpire from Puerto Rico Arnaldo Roman was on the plate between USA and Panama, and on the first pitch of the game, was a curveball in the dirt, and the USA catcher missed it and Arnaldo broke his finger.  We are hoping he will still be able to umpire the bases as they have splinted it up but he is still in lots of pain.  Later tonight I umpire RF line between Mexico and the Dominican Republic.  Tomorrow is the final day of the round robin, and I will find out my assignment for that later today.  Then we get Sunday off, and then the playoff day is Monday, and the Finals on Tuesday.

Hasta Luego
Rob

Last night was my first game of the tournament, and it was on the plate between Mexico and Panama.  We had a 6 umpire crew for this game.  Jose Perez from Cuba was at 1st, Jhonatan Parra from Venezuela was at 2nd, Cesar Valdez from Cuba was at 3rd, Daniel Perez from Dominican Republic was on the RF line, and Arnaldo Roman from Puerto Rico was on the LF line.
The pregame meeting was interesting because I had to go over the entire ground rules with both coaches.  Luckily the Mexican manager spoke English, and he was able to translate what I was saying to the Panama manager.  The first called strike 3 of the game was against a Mexican batter, so started so show me up because he thought it was outside.  I yelled at him that it was a good pitch.  He just stood there and looked at me, and then fans were booing me and yelling things at me (luckily I could not understand but I am sure they were saying things about my mother).  I yelled at the batter again, and he slowly walks to the bench shaking his head the entire way.  Latin American players very often try to show up the umpire.  It is a part of their baseball culture, they figure if they don’t swing at it, that it is not a strike.  I kept calling that outside corner pitch that they did not like, and at one point in between innings the Mexican manager came out like he was going to make a lineup change, but he told me that his players are saying that pitch is way outside, and I was like “Not Today” (just like my son Matthew would say) I told him that it is a good pitch and that I was giving him that same pitch.  Panama did not complain too much except once when I rung a batter up on a borderline low pitch, nothing was said and the batter just went to the dugout.  Then the next batter on the second pitch, I called a strike that was borderline low again, and the first base coach yells in English “Come on this is baseball, not a bowling alley”  I gave him a stern looking, letting him know that I did not like the comment, but deep down I was laughing because I thought that was a very good line. I am sure he uses that line all the time when he has an English speaking umpire.
Panama led the game 1-0 for most of the game, they scored a run on a double that the runner score from first with a close play at the plate.  Then in the bottom of the 8th Mexico scored to tie, and the place went nuts.  For once the Mexican fans were yelling and it was not at me.  After 9 complete innings we were tied 1-1.  In international baseball to encourage runs in the extra innings they play under international tie breaker rules, were they put runners on 1st and 2nd to start the inning  with 0 outs.  In this situation it almost guarantees runs in each inning.  Well just my luck, no one could score a run.  It was not until the bottom of the 13th inning when Mexico finally scored a run to win 2-1.  The place went nuts.  What an amazing game for my first game at the Pan American Games, but honestly I would have been happy with a nice easy 5-0 game to start the tourney.  It is hard to explain the intensity there was in that game, and I was getting tired and hungry as the game went on, but I just really worked on staying focused.  I did not want to be the reason a team won or lost the game.
All three games yesterday were very good games and were all decided by one run.  Today I umpire at 2 PM at 3rd base between USA and Dominican Republic.  We are doing a 4 man crew, and I am working with Vicente Madero from Mexico on the plate, Pedro Tun from Mexico at 1st, and Jose Perez from Cuba at 2nd.  Should be another good game.

So this morning I got up around 8:30 had breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast was a buffet, with eggs, pancakes, beans and some spicy tortious made into what looked to be hash browns. I mainly ate the eggs, as I was not sureabout the spicy tortious so early in the morning. I then had to get my credentials around 9 AM as I was the last umpire to arrive last night and all the other umpires had already done so. That took a long time, and then we had to head to the ball park for meetings. The first meeting was very long and included the team representatives, and they mainly argued about when they would have batting practice, and stuff that did not relate to us. After that meeting was over we got to go get our equipment. Our sponsor seems to be Wilson and New Balance. I received the following: West Vest Gold chest protector, Wilson shock goalie mask, Wilson Davis Shin guards, and New Balance plate and base shoes. You should have seen us we were like kids in a candy store. All very nice stuff, and good timing for me as I need a new chest protector,
shin guards and plate shoes. I was not expecting this so it was a great surprise to receive this. It is about $700 worth of equipment. After that we also got some souvenir backpack filled with shirts, shorts, pants, jacket, water bottle and other Guadalajara souvenirs. No umpire shirts though so it looks like we wear whatever we have.  Could be interesting to try to get us to all match.  After that we had an umpire only meeting where we went over tournament rules, ground rules, and rotations.  After that we had to wait for a bus to go back to the hotel.  We did not get back to the hotel until after 4 PM and I was starving because they did not have food for us at the stadium.  For dinner you have a choice of ordering from a menu or having the buffet, but I have been told by the American umpire that it took forever to get food from the
menu.  So I was hungry so I ate the buffet, not to mention the menu does not have pitchers and I can’t read the
menu .  After dinner, I asked about a bank to get some Mexican Pesos.  The umpire supervisor Luis (from Mexico) took me to the bank and showed me around the downtown.  They seem to have a church on almost every corner, and all of the Churches are gigantic and very beautiful.

We have 14 umpires here.  6 Mexican umpires, 2 Cuban umpires, and 1 umpire from each of the following:
Canada, USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Panama.  They all seem to be great guys, and the umpire from Venezuela speaks a little English, so I am able to communicate with him.  Our supervisor is from Mexico and his name is Luis Ramirez.  We have our assignments for the first day and my roommate Randy Bruns does the plate on the first game at 10 AM between Canada and Puerto Rico.  I can’t remember who is on the 2 PM game, and I am on the plate between Mexico and Panama on the 7 PM game.  I am very excited, and there should be a good crowd.

One of the issues we may have this week though is the field.  They were still adding 4 inches of new dirt to the entire infield at 4 PM today. Even if they get all the dirt in and compacted down, the field is going to be very soft.  There is 3 games each day so I am not sure if the field is going to hold up.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Well I need to get some sleep.
Here are some photos from today:

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So today was a very long day.  Left my house around 5 AM with DeAnna and the boys to head to the airport.  Flight left Vancouver at 8:40 AM getting me into Dallas TX at 2PMish Dallas time.  Then my connecting flight to Leon MX did not leave until 8 PM, getting me in around 10:30 PM.  Arriving at the Leon airport which is about the size of the Kamloops airport, the first thing you will notice is that there are army guys everywhere with machine guns and dogs.  As I walked into the airport even before customs I saw a guy holding a Guadalajara 2011 sign asking each person who walked by him if they were Rob Allan.  When I introduced myself he took me right up to the customs counter bypassing the people in the customs line.  He said some stuff in Spanish to the customs agent and she just stamped the and I carried on.   As we exited out of the airport, there was a large bus with Guadalajara 2011 on it, and then man said here is your ride.  It was only me and the bus driver on the bus, so he told me to sit in the front with him if I wanted.  There was a foldout seat right at the entrance of the bus.  The bus driver spoke about as much English as I do Spanish, but we were able to communicate a little during the 1 hour drive to Lagos De Moreno where my hotel and the baseball is.  We got a police escort the entire way.  Seemed like overkill but I definitely felt like a VIP.  When I got the hotel, which seems very nice so far, I was greeted at the door and then had to go through a metal detector.  My bags also went through the metal detector and the bags were also searched.  The hotel has about 20-25 rooms and the entire hotel is either umpires or scorekeepers.  Well I am hungry and tired, so I need to get some sleep.  Here are some pictures on the way to the hotel:

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The Pan Am Games is just over 2 weeks away, and I am getting very excited about my trip.  The games are in Guadalajara Mexico but the baseball is being played in a smaller city about 2 hours east of Guadalajara called Lagos De Moreno at the Pan American Baseball Stadium that was built in 2010 for the games.

The opening ceremonies will be on Oct 14th, but the baseball is from Oct 19th to 25th, so I fly in on Oct 17th, and fly home on October 26th.  The baseball tournament will have 2 pools of 4 where each team in the pool will play each other and then the top 2 teams in each pool with play in a playoff and medal round.  The 8 teams are Canada, USA, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Panama.  These 8 teams are currently playing in the World Cup in Panama which rosters include mainly current AA and AAA players.  Also Canadian umpires Dale Hackett and Rene Provencher are currently in Panama umpiring at the World Cup, and Corrie Davis is an Assistant Supervisor.  The world Cup goes from October 1st to 15th.

On the 17th I leave Vancouver at 8:40AM, and fly to Dallas Texas where I have a long layover (5 or 6 hours) and then I finally land in Mexico around 10:30 PM.  Then I will have minimum of an hour drive to my hotel from the airport.  It is going to be a very long day.  I have the 18th off to recover, and then games will start at 9 AM on the 19th. When I arrive there should be someone to pick me up at the airport(hopefully), and then they will drive me to Hotel Victoria which is where all the baseball umpires and technical committee are staying.    I have been told the US umpire will be Randy Bruns.  Randy and I will be the only English speaking umpires as the rest of the umpire will be from Latin America.  I have not met Randy before, but he is an ex AAA umpire I am sure by the end of this we will know each other very well.

It is hard to put into words how exciting this is for me.  Umpiring an international event like this has been a lifetime dream of mine.  I remember thinking many years ago about how amazing it would be to umpire an international tournament in a foreign country, and here I am just over 2 weeks away from a lifetime dream.  I will keep you updated while I am there on how things are going.

Rob

Umpired the plate game last night between Cuba and Chinese Taipei.  It was the 1 vs 2 playoff game having the winner automatically going into Sunday’s final.  Cuba got up 3-0 in the first inning, and I was thinking that this might be a blowout, but the Chinese Taipei battled back and then took the lead 4-3.  Then Cuba came back and retook the lead 6-4, but Chinese Taipei batted back and tied the game 6-6 after 9 innings.  This tournament is playing by the international tiebreaker rule.  What happens is that after the 9 innings each manager comes out to the plate umpire and declares who they want to start hitting in the 10th inning.  It can be anywhere in the order that they want no matter where they finished in the 9th.  Then each extra inning starts with a runner on 1st and 2nd.  These runners are the previous 2 players in the batting order.  The managers only get to select who gets to hit after the 9th.  If the game goes into the 11th or more innings, they just start the batting order as normal with it being the batter after the last one in the previous inning, but they start each inning with a runner at 1st and 2nd.  So both Cuba and Chinese Taipei selected there number 2 hitter to hit.  That seems to make the most sense in this situation as you would want your number 2 hitter to bunt the runners over to 2nd and 3rd and then your best hitter in the lineup to be up with 2 runners in scoring position.

So in the 10th inning, Chinese Taipei did as planned and bunted the runners over for the 1st out.  Then the number 3 batter came up, and I was thinking that they might intentionally walk since 1st base is open.  This would take the bat out of the best hitter in the lineup and also put a possible double play into effect.  Cuba did not do that and the number 3 hitter hit a double off the wall.  Chinese Taipei went on to score 2 more runs and take the lead 10-6 which ended up being the final score as Chinese Taipei upset the Cubans.

So Chinese Taipei goes onto the Sunday Final, and then Cuba will play the winner of Canada and Japan tonight at 7PM.  Ian Lamplaugh will be on the plate for tonight’s game at 7 PM, and Tim Vessey will be on the plate for the Final game on Sunday.   It feels like we have been in Prince George forever, but we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I fly back to Vancouver Monday morning, and then I umpire Monday night starting a 3 game series with the Vancouver Canadians and the Eugene Emeralds at Nat Baily Stadium.  One of the professional umpires cannot make it across the border, so I am filling in for him.  It should be fun, and if you are able to make it, you should come down to the Nat and heckle me.  Monday and Tuesday’s games are at 7 PM and the Wednesday game is at 1 PM.

Rob

Had the Plate yesterday between Chinese Taipei and Japan.  The game was very good especially early on.  Japan took a 2-0 lead but then Chinese Taipei fought back and won 8-2.  The pitching on both teams was excellent, Japans starting was throwing smoke and was about to hit his spots.  One of the Japanese relief pitchers was a submarine pitcher, which took a little getting used to but it wasn’t too bad.  He always tried leaving the rosin bag on top of the mound on the side that he was throwing to distract the batters.  That is a common thing the Asian teams try to do to get an advantage because sometimes the batter will have difficulty picking the ball up with the white rosin bag in the background near the pitchers release point.  I kept telling him the rosin bag needs to be behind the mound not on top of the mound, and he would move it when I asked.  The Chinese Taipei pitcher that came in for the 9th inning like to load up his throwing hand with rosin so that when he threw the ball there would be this puff of white rosin come from his hand as he released the ball.  Again this is a common tactic used by Asian teams to get an advantage.  I tried communicating to him that he needed to wipe his hand on his pants after using the rosin bag, but even though he seemed to understand, he continued to do it anyway.  At this point it was 8-2 and we only needed 2 outs before the game was finished, so I just let it go as Japan did not seem to be complaining.

Today ‘s game could be an interesting game as Beijing China plays Chinese Taipei.  There is lots of political history between these 2 countries that I am not going to get into on this post but basically my understanding is that China still thinks they own the Island of Taiwan and that they are basically at civil war against each other.  This game means a lot to both countries just because of the politics between them.  The only thing I can compare this game to is maybe similar in a political way in hockey between the Russians and Canadians in the 72 summit series.  Things could get interesting.

I am at 3rd base on this game at 3PM.  Again you can watch it live at www.worldbaseball.ca  The later game at 7 PM has Japan vs Canada with the “Thrill Show” on the plate.  Will “The Thrill” Hunter as we like to call him. 

Rob