World Cup of Baseball?

[LBJackal]

C-Im not sure, but isn't Victor Martinez from the DR?

He'd be on the Venezuelan team.

There are so many good teams out there though, that would be so much more fun to watch than the Olympics.

Exactly. The WCOB would be awesome. People jumped on me about the Soccer comment. I know Soccer is more popular now. I just think if this Cup takes off it will be come the biggest sport in the world. Or maybe I'm just crazy.

You're crazy, trust me. Soccer will be #1 for a LONG time. I can't see anythign taking it over. By making it once every 4 years for the World Cup in a sport where almost any country can field a competitive team, I can't see another sport gaining more popularity. The poorest country in the world can run soccer leagues. Pretty much you need a net and a ball. Same with basketball, which is why it's popular almost everywhere in the world. Baseball you need so much equipment, hockey you need ice and even more equipment, football you need a ton of equipment.

I don't even like soccer but I get so into it during the World Cup when a country I have in my blood is involved. I love baseball and would much rather watch the WCOB then soccer, but in reality, soccer is probbaly 100 times more popular than baseball worldwide.

[Rirruto]

You're crazy, trust me. Soccer will be #1 for a LONG time. I can't see anythign taking it over. By making it once every 4 years for the World Cup in a sport where almost any country can field a competitive team, I can't see another sport gaining more popularity. The poorest country in the world can run soccer leagues. Pretty much you need a net and a ball. Same with basketball, which is why it's popular almost everywhere in the world. Baseball you need so much equipment, hockey you need ice and even more equipment, football you need a ton of equipment.

I don't even like soccer but I get so into it during the World Cup when a country I have in my blood is involved. I love baseball and would much rather watch the WCOB then soccer, but in reality, soccer is probbaly 100 times more popular than baseball worldwide.

I agree, soccer is THE world sport. You dont even have to be an avid sports fan to root for soccer.

I dont know if anybody knows but the Iraqi soccer team is actually guaranteed an Olympic medal if they win their next game and can win the gold with 2 wins. They recently just beat Australia I think 1-0. BIG props to them, especially because of what they have been going through. The former head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee was the son of Saddham and used to torture athletes for not performing well. A very feel good story for making it this far and just competing in Athens...

[kimchi_chigae]

You're crazy, trust me. Soccer will be #1 for a LONG time. I can't see anythign taking it over. By making it once every 4 years for the World Cup in a sport where almost any country can field a competitive team, I can't see another sport gaining more popularity. The poorest country in the world can run soccer leagues. Pretty much you need a net and a ball. Same with basketball, which is why it's popular almost everywhere in the world. Baseball you need so much equipment, hockey you need ice and even more equipment, football you need a ton of equipment.

I don't even like soccer but I get so into it during the World Cup when a country I have in my blood is involved. I love baseball and would much rather watch the WCOB then soccer, but in reality, soccer is probbaly 100 times more popular than baseball worldwide.

I agree, soccer is THE world sport. You dont even have to be an avid sports fan to root for soccer.

I dont know if anybody knows but the Iraqi soccer team is actually guaranteed an Olympic medal if they win their next game and can win the gold with 2 wins. They recently just beat Australia I think 1-0. BIG props to them, especially because of what they have been going through. The former head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee was the son of Saddham and used to torture athletes for not performing well. A very feel good story for making it this far and just competing in Athens...

yeah, iraq won against portugal in their first game, which was already a great acomplishment. now, they play paraguay in the semis. i will be rooting for iraq, although it's gonna be tough, paraguay was the one who took brazil out of the olympics. the other semis should be good too, argentina and italy. dunno if they'll broadcast the games though.

and i agree with Jackal about the equipament thing. i used to play soccer with balls made of socks. we played with no shoes and used sandals to make the goals. played on the grass, dirty or asphalt. and it's easy to understand soccer, well, the off side rule might be a bit complicated but that's about it. my grandpa has never watched baseball in all his life and i tried to explain it to him one day and i couldn't do it. maybe i'm just a lousy teacher, but there are so many rules in baseball that it's tough to get a grip of it at first.

[LBJackal]

Yeah that's true about the rules....... it's not as simple as it seems to us. A guy that lived next to me in rez last year, whose from Australia, had an easier time teaching me cricket than I did teaching him baseball. And baseball was on ALL THE TIME at the start of school last year. We watched all the games, and finally he caught on. It's like learning english; to us, it's such an easy language (even though we all use it wrong ) but to others it's one of the hardest languages to learn.

[CubsFan7724]

If you want to watch the soccer games, they are on Telemundo usually, for good reason: no one in the US likes soccer . Why is it the worlds most popular sport? Its so incredibly boring. Its a little more fun in Spanish because they get so excited over them like passing the ball.

[KULCAT]

If you want to watch the soccer games, they are on Telemundo usually, for good reason: no one in the US likes soccer . Why is it the worlds most popular sport? Its so incredibly boring. Its a little more fun in Spanish because they get so excited over them like passing the ball.

Its not boring at all. Its just hard to get into it when everybody at ESPN is telling you how boring it is. I think the Americans have this sports culture about scoring in wich a game that doesnt make a lot of its emphasis in scoring its deemed boring. Anybody that plays soccer knows the sport is not about scoring 9 goals to 7. THAT would be a terrible game. Scoring a goal is almost as hard as hitting a homer. The prelude to the goal its about as exciting as it gets. But Americans dont apreciate that or any of the intangibles of the sport. I understand that cause most of the people i know think baseball its the most boring sport in earth. They cant get the timeout of the batter to get comfortable at the plate, or the talks with the pitcher with the manager or all the time the pitchers take to make his next pitch or why after the 3 outs we have to wait till the adds are over to start watching the game again. I have learned to apreciate those things as part of the strategy and i dont mind the same way americans dont mind but soccer is not popular out of nowhere. If you get to understand it you would appreciate everything that happens in it instead of calling it boring

[Rico The Retard]

Taiwan would be pretty good led by there ace Chin-Hui Tsao lmao