Netherlands Shocks Dominicans — AGAIN!
The favorites to win the 2009 World Baseball Classic didn’t even make it to the big dance. The Dominican Republic was eliminated by the Netherlands, the second time that this upset occurred in one week, allowing the Dutch squad to advance to the second round, while the favorites will watch from home or report to spring training.
When the Dutch beat the Dominicans four days ago, they were 7 1/2 run underdogs. I repeat, they were getting seven-and-a-half runs. That doesn’t happen in baseball. Ever. They were getting more runs in a baseball game than the Cardinals were getting in the Super Bowl. It was a monumental upset. Now, they’ve done it again.
The Netherlands rallied for two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning after giving up one in the top half of the inning, to win the game 2-1. It was a tense pitchers duel throughout with the intensity of an MLB playoff game the whole time.
When the Dominicans finally got on the board in the 11th, the bench emptied in celebration of them taking the lead. But as the Netherlands came back to win the game, the faces in the Dominican dugout turned to shock.
With a roster that is made up of 23 major leaguers, including stars like Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes and David Ortiz, the Dominicans were the clear favorites to win the WBC. But a team with just two major leaguers beat them twice in four days, shocking the Dominicans.
To compare the teams even more, the Dominican squad earns $83.4 million playing baseball professionally, while the Netherlands team makes just $400,000. This was not supposed to be a close matchup. It really wasn’t supposed to be close twice.
Perhaps this is the wake-up call that the Dominicans needed, similar to when Team USA was defeated in Olympic basketball. The next WBC, don’t expect them to be without players like Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Albert Pujols.
Then again, this team was pretty star-studded — this just happens sometimes in baseball.
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