Here are my photos from the Gold / Silver Medal game that featured Cuba and the USA.

Here are my photos from the Bronze Medal game that featured Japan and Korea.

I once again decided to go to the game at the very last minute and ended up getting to the stadium at around 6:30, so I missed out on all the offense (namely Springer's grand slam in the 1st inning).

As usual, I had my camera with me.  Unfortunately, I had an off-night -- I wasn't able to snap as many good images and for some reason, I really struggled with the lighting.  Odd because I didn't have the same problem the night before.  The only two things that changed between last night and the night before were the section I was sitting and a different zoom lens.  But it wasn't as if I was sitting in an entirely different location, or that the zoom lens I was using was hugely different from the one I used the night before.

In any case, I managed to filter out about 50 pictures that I thought were half-way decent.  Since I don't have time to lay them out, I've posted them in slideshow format.

A couple of news headlines from the game:

Shigeo Nagashima was at the game last night.  Nagashima was impressed with Tatsuya Oishi's outing and also said that Yuki Saito pitched well, outside of the first inning (in particular the one pitch that ended up over the fence for a grand slam).

Incidentally, Saito was a no-show at the post-game press conference.  Tamotsu Enomoto asked reporters to give Saito a break for his absence.

Ended up going to the Japan - Chinese Taipei game last night at the very last minute.  I don't have much time to go through the images, so I'll just post a flash slideshow.

On a side note: this was not the same Chinese Taipei team I saw that play the US into extra innings.  This team looked under-prepared and over-matched.  Mentally, they didn't really seem like they were in it -- they kept making mistakes on the field that ended up costing the team a number of runs.  While I wasn't necessarily expecting Chinese Taipei to beat Japan, I thought it would a lot closer.  Kind of a disappointment.

Deliveries for the four pitchers that pitched against Japan on 8/1.

#23 Ismel Jimenez Santiago

#74 Arleys Sánchez de la Cruz

#95 Dalier Hinojosa Hernández

#75 Miguel Alfredo González Puebla

NOTE: I just realized that Picasa Web has a limit of 1,600 on the width of uploaded images.  Most of these images are much wider lengthwise, which means you don't actually get the full effect.  For the time being, I'll continue to use Picasa Web but will try to think of an alternative.

The only things I really remember about this game are that it was really hot (so hot that home plate ump left the game after get heat sickness), long, and Japan looked overwhelmingly outmatched at times (they also rushed a lot of infield plays because of Cuba's speed).  And the power Cuba had was just amazing.  Hector Olivera's homer in the first looked like it was going to be a simply fly ball to left, but the ball just kept carrying and landed more than a few rows back beyond the left field wall.  The only pitcher that really looked like he was in control was Tomoyuki Sugano, and even he gave up 3 runs (solo shot and a 2-run shot).

In any case, here are the photos I took from the game.  Incidentally, there was another Yuki Saito outing that drew a much larger number of people than the last time.  There were also a couple of guys sitting a few rows back behind me...  One of them was drunk and the other sober, together they made a fairly funny boke-tsukkomi group (it's when one guy of plays dumb while the other corrects him).

Introduction of the umps.

Cuba's roster introduced.

And here's Japan...

And another shot of Japan...

Players meet in the middle of the field and then break.

The scoreboard before the start of the game.

Hector Olivera #12 about to touch home plate after his 2-run home in the first.

Daichi Suzuki #5 trotting home after his 3-run homer in the second inning.

Jose Abreu #79 trying to score in the 3rd inning and getting thrown out at home instead.

Tatsuya Oishi #15, lightly throwing the ball around in the bullpen.

The player Japan still can't seem to get enough of: Yuki Saito #1.

Hayata Ito #9 slides home safely in the 9th inning.

Final view of the scoreboard.

You can see the rest of the images I took (about 60 in all) at my WUBC: Japan vs Cuba album.

Just got back in.  It was quite the game.

I managed to nab quite a few pictures.  I'll be uploading them a bit later (and I'll be adding them to this post).

In any case, the US beat Chinese Taipei, 8-7, in 11 innings.

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Since I'm a bit strapped for time, I'll post this as a Picasa slideshow:

A couple of quick thoughts from the game:

I was really impressed with Chinese Taipei.  They just kept on coming back.  And it definite wore the US team down.  Each time it seemed like they had the game, Chinese Taipei would scratch around and tie the game or pull ahead.

Perhaps even more impressive though, was the crowd of Chinese Taipei supporters.  There were maybe 30-40 of them sitting behind the Chinese Taipei dugout.  And for the first half or so of the game, they were pretty quiet.  And then at one point, can't remember exactly which inning, one of the supporters got up and ran through the aisles with the Chinese Taipei flag waving behind him.  And that got everyone over there riled up.  From that point on, they were extremely vocal and became something of a 10th man on the field for Chinese Taipei.

There was also one somewhat embarrassing moment for Japanese fans.  Some bum sitting along the first base side wearing a team Japan uniform started heckling the USA team because they were arguing a call.  Again, I can't remember exactly which inning it occurred in, but if I'm not mistaken, it was a sort of a humpback liner to second that looked like it could have hit the ground.  What made matters worse was that the first base ump took his time calling the play.  In any case, I think the heckling was uncalled for.  And there certainly was no need to start yelling "shut up" in English.

Other than that, it was a great game all around.

Here are the pitcher delivers from Saturday's game between Japan and China.

Japan

Yusuke Nomura #20

Kisho Kagami #18

Yuhei Nakaushiro #21

Images from the bullpen

Masahiro Inui #14

Tomoyuki Sugano #11

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China

KANGNAN XIA #20

WANG YAO #15

SHI DONG #11

I didn't get too many in-game action shots during the game since I was distracted by both the activity in Japan's bullpen, but also with all the kids running around.

In any case, here they are:

Player introductions. Kimio Watanabe #3 bumping hands with Daichi Suzuki #5

Shota Koike #22, the catcher.

The scoreboard: starting line-ups and presiding umps.

Kimio Watanabe #3 diving back in before the tag.

Kisho Kagami #18 is going over things with his catcher during a bullpen session.

Yuki Saito #1. It was amazing how many people started coming over to the stands near the bullpen. And it was hilarious when the kids started asking Saito if he had a handkerchief on him. The crowd got so ridiculously large that the players had to laugh.

Kisho Kagami #18 gets the call.

It was pretty amazing watching Tomoyuki Sugano #11 throw right in front of me. And just like Tatsuya Oishi last night, you can really here his fastball.

Game over. Players celebrate.

A shot at the final scoreboard.

To see the rest of the images (including these, there are about 53 of them), check out my WUBC: Japan vs China album at Picasa.

I threw these together rather hastily, so they aren't my best work, but I think they're good enough for the time being.  You can click into the images to see the large versions.

Yuki Saito

Masahiro Inui

Tatsuya Oishi

Myung-June Yoon

Sung-Bum Na