5'10" beats 6'4" Anyday!

I think your premise is correct that 5' 10" beats 6'4" any (given) day. But this tournament is very short (pardon the pun) and doesn't really give much to ultimately judge upon. Over the course of a season, I think you'd see the "big guys" win.

With that said though, many baseball tools are now pretty well ignored in favor of the big bat. The sacrifice, the bunt, the hit and run-all fast becoming lost arts.

Who among us believes that the health of baseball in the US is dependent upon all of the hundreds of thousands of young ball players from T-Ball on up through high school ball?

Most all of these kids at one point or another dream of becoming a major league star. Some of these kids are destined to be big boys, let's say 6'3" or taller. The rest are not.

What do you suppose will happen to the major league dream of the shorter kids when it becomes increasingly apparent that the MLB clubs are not too interested in players of short stature?

With their dream having few possibilities of being realized, interest in baseball by our youth is going to wane among the shorter kids. Realize this is the majority of kids, as most kids do not grow to be 6'3" or taller. These shorter kids are still just as competitive as their taller friends. They will find other sports opportunities, other than baseball, to fulfill their need to compete. Sports that do not limit their opportunities primarily because of height will become increasingly popular.

Is this possible drop of interest in the game healthy for the future of baseball? Is the rest of the world on to something?

Do we really want to continue to shatter these dreams? If large participation at the younger ages is important to the game, then we really must keep the dream alive.

The Japan team is taller than the average Japanese citizen. Average Japanese male is 67.2" tall.

Japan team pitchers avg 71.25", 106% of polulation average
Japan team infielders avg 70.6", 105% of population average
Japan team outfielders avg 70.5", 105% of population average


Average USA male is 68.9" tall.

USA team pitchers avg 74.57", 108% of polulation average
USA team infielders avg 74.86", 109% of population average
USA team outfielders avg 74.67", 108% of population average

Conclusions:

In WBC height was not a good predictor of success.
Professional baseball players are taller than the average population male.
USA team players are taller by a wider margin over the general USA population than are the Japanese players over the Japanese population.

The 5'7" Japanese male is probably complaining about the bias towards height in Japanese baseball just like Chicksdig.... is complaining about the bias in the USA.

Are we saying that if the USA team were on average 4" shorter they would have played better? I don't think so.

In case anyone missed it... There was a good discussiom about this in a recent thread. Might help keep some dreams alive. Here's the link...
thread

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IMO..

These things tend to cycle. The cycle during the juiced periond was to get big guys and make them bigger. The juice help "fuel" this cycle..

Now, As the "use of the juice" declines and the experts at the Classic watch the Ichi-clones slap hit, bunt, run hit, and contact their way to sucess perhaps the cycle will move back some to value contact hitters rather than just hulks...

By the way, being tall is not all good....because of their height my boys were very limited in the positions they could play in baseball... a great source of frustration and...a natural discrimination against tall kids!...

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Taller kids with long arms tend to more easily dominate high school hitters. This is the reason these players get the attention of scouts and recruiters. A big guy cruising effortlessly at 88-90 mph looks less risky to a scout than a small guy snapping his arm like a wetrag to achieve the same speeds.

Shorter kids may eventually gain the "man strength" to compete at the same level, but that is usually after high school. Pedro Martinez entered MLB as a shortstop. His arm strength blossomed when he was in his 20's.

quote:

Originally posted by mifdad:
Taller kids with long arms tend to more easily dominate high school hitters. This is the reason these players get the attention of scouts and recruiters. A big guy cruising effortlessly at 88-90 mph looks less risky to a scout than a small guy snapping his arm like a wetrag to achieve the same speeds.

Shorter kids may eventually gain the "man strength" to compete at the same level, but that is usually after high school. Pedro Martinez entered MLB as a shortstop. His arm strength blossomed when he was in his 20's.

Good post.

Size didn't have much to do with the results of the USA team in the World Baseball tourney.

Read today where Al Leiter retired (member of the team). Knew all along that Roger Clemens was retired (Why did he take up someone's position, when he's in his early '40's and intending to retire?)

If you don't send your best players (or, if they choose not to go), when other countries LIVE for this tournament and the chance to showcase their baseball skills against Cuba and the US, you deserve what you get.

Another example of why pros shouldn't be in this tournament.

What the USA basketball team in the Olympics in 2008...If they don't want to be there, they will get "smoked" by the Lithuanians!

A nation of 3 million beating a nation of nearly 300 million!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fundamentals. That's what the foreign teams work on...baseball, basketball, etc.

Foreign basketball in the Olympics showed up the USA, because we had a team full of "showtime", slamdunk players that couldn't defend Barney Fife. Now, European players are getting drafted higher in the NBA draft because they are more complete players.

Many of the guys on other World Teams played Winter Ball. Our team went deer hunting, relaxed, and got ready for this like it was just another Spring Training exhibition. We didn't do the little fundamental things you have to do to win...we had guys like Leiter that didn't belong there...for some reason Buck Martinez was managing...it's a miracle we made it as far as we did. Maybe next time MLB will take this seriously and field a ready team that has the chance to do well.

It's amazing how shamed people are that the USA didn't roll over everyone. I don't see it that way and think it's great that teams from other countries who will never play in a WS consider the WBC the next best thing. A couple of facts:

The Big Leaguers from all countries who participated in the WBC were key to creating enough interest to make the whole thing work economically. Take them away and you have no games...how is that better? Even the WBC is a business.

The structure of the WBC favors teams like Cuba's national squad to win a short tournament. Major Leaguers are facing a 162-game regular season starting soon. That is their meal ticket. Could the Cubans prep for the WBC, win it, and then play a 162-game traveling ML season, win throughout the playoffs and then beat the other pennant winner in a seven game series in October? Pretty tall order.

Give the Big Leaguers credit for helping to raise the profile of the game around the world. They didn't have to obliterate opponents with shock and awe to do that.