I’ll never forget one of the now as it turns out, later games my late father and I would attend together. It was the Phillies last regular season home game for 2005, the visiting team was his New York Mets. On the way in, we were handed imitation passports. It was a plug for something we never heard of called “The World Baseball Classic”.

The pre-game barrage of ads was dominated that day by WBC promotion. I found it funny a tournament for Baseball with the phrase “Baseball Spoken here”. Could this be for real? A World Cup for baseball fans? Would a small cult of Americans wake up at 4 AM EST to watch live play on ESPN? (I did last week.) Would people kill players that cost their nation the title like soccer? (So far no!)

The 2006 edition was exciting for me as a fan, but stunk as a caller to sports talk radio. The only show that would let me on the air to talk WBC, was Sports Overnight America. Of course they also let callers on the air who have consumed shots of moonshine as well.

Granted it was the first attempt at WBC and had flaws. (Also I recall it was planned for every four years originally, not sure why it was bumped to three? Maybe for strikes?) This time around the WBC has new rules to make it more pre-MLB season friendly. The pitch count rule for pitchers to avoid the dead arms the last edition caused. (Had Nolan Ryan been in charged he would have declared “pitch count is for wimps!”)

The play is far better for USA (they advanced to the next round!). Not to mention the turnout for many teams was huge. While Canada went two and out this year, they brought a sell out for game one (as the road team for their first game as a host nation, a MLB influenced snub of Canada) and the second game vs Team Italian Americans (find a native of Italia on that roster.) Canada had another crowd of 40,000 plus. Not bad for a nation that a few years ago lost a MLB franchise due to poor attendance as did a AAA team from the nation’s capital of Ottawa for the same reason, no ticket sales.) WBC has made Canada more baseball crazy of late, and maybe it will carry over for those Blue Jays.

How can you not love the stories of the more amateur teams doing well this go around? Australia nearly made it to round two until a pudge of a catcher himself, Yosbany Peraza in the top of the 8th with two outs did his best imitation of Matt Stairs in LA October 2008.

How can you not like a team where Justin Huber may be one of the biggest names almost advances to the next round? And how can you not love the story of the Netherlands? The country most famous for legal sale and use of Pot, shrooms, and whore houses has produced the feel good sports story of 2009 so far.

The Dutch beat not once but twice pre-WBC favorites Dominican Republic. It didn’t hurt that this was the biggest week in Dutch baseball history. (Did you ever think the day would come you would hear that phrase?) This team lacks the over hyped talent the Dominicans had. But who didn’t love when Pudge Rodriguez was smoked with a three pitch K from 19 year old Juan Carlos Sulbaran? (He wears number 45 like Tug McGraw by the way.)

Yet when I put on the weekday edition of Sports Overnight America, or the mumbler from New York who has been a bust since his Mad Dog ran away to Sternland. All I hear is hosts saying it’s dull and meaningless.(So is the “World Series” to folks in Amsterdam.) I love the Phillies but how did they get the crown of “World F***king Champions” having never played a team outside US borders? (Ok so the F-bomb was fueled by Chase Utley’s heavy use of Miller Lite that day in Philly.)

I can not wait for the next round this weekend. To watch teams like Japan face Mexico, and USA versus Puerto Rico. Maybe I’m just praying that the Korean Cheerleaders we saw at the Tokyo dome will be in the states. (God were they pretty!).

But I really hope the finals is the Netherlands vs Cuba. Two teams low on MLB talent but loaded with heart. Thats what I love most about WBC, not if some over the hill talk show host in NYC, or screaming heads on another lame ESPN News segment approve of this WBC. This thing is doing what the Olympics, MLB, and the United Nations can not, bring us together with Baseball!

If it is the Dutch vs Cubans put your money on Cuba. The bay of pigs invasion, and missiles of october mean nothing to me, I’m 29 years old. This years WBC could pave the way for a new future with Cuba. Maybe we should have had this WBC thing back when the Dodgers and Giants moved west!

Or maybe the next scandal from the beltway maybe testing WBC players for magic mushrooms should the Dutch beat the United States.