18U Baseball World Champs opens day late

By Jung Min-ho

The six opening games of the IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship, scheduled for Thursday in Seoul, were delayed due to Typhoon Tembin but the event will begin today, the organizers said.

The opening of the tournament for players under 18 was first delayed by an hour but the organizing committee decided to postpone all first-day games to Tuesday as the heavy rain continued. But today’s fixtures will go ahead as scheduled, as Korea begins its campaign for a sixth gold medal against Venezuela.

It is the first time for Korea to host the event, and the nation’s young baseball talents are looking to compete with other global future prospects on a worldwide scale on their home turf.

Organized by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), the 25th event since 1981 will run until Sept. 8. Korea, champions in 2006 and 2008, is seeking to repeat its previous triumphs in the nation’s capital.

“All the team members are mentally and physically strong,” manager Lee Jeong-hoon said at a media conference on Wednesday. “We want to impress the fans through this opportunity.”

He said the players are feeling the pressure with fans’ expectations high on home soil but that they are determined to go all the way with their “mental strength.”

Cuba, with 11 previous wins in the competition, will not feature this year with internal affairs given as the reason by the Korea Baseball Association, one of the official organizers of the Seoul event. In its absence the U.S., Japan and defending champions Chinese Taipei are considered the biggest challenges Korea will need to overcome to win the title. The U.S. manager, former MLB All-Star Scott Brosius, is confident in his players’ ability but said that the competition will be tough for all the teams in the tournament.

“Every single day will be a very tough game to play," said Brosius, a Gold Glove-winning third baseman when with the New York Yankees. "Our goal is to win every game we have the opportunity to play, and hopefully that will lead us to the title game. We certainly respect every team and just know that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”

Chinese Taipei beat the U.S. 7-2 in an exhibition match last week. Chinese Taipei manager Wen Chen Lan said he is “hoping to win back-to-back titles.”

“Every single team will be strong,” he said. “It will be a good competition.”

Masayoshi Ogura, manager of Team Japan, said right-handed pitchers, Shintaro Fujinami and Shohei Otani will play a key role in his side’s performance in a bid to win the nation’s first gold at the event.

Korea will also face Australia, Colombia, the Netherlands and the United States in Pool A while Canada, Chinese Taipei, the Czech Republic, Italy, Panama and Japan make up Pool B. The top three teams from each group will progress to a second round-robin round. The two countries with the best combined record from the first two stages will advance to the championship match.