One week from now the Baseball World 2005 will be held in The Netherlands and finally this year some pro's from the US will play. These are the names I've found so far:

Australia:

John Deeble (Head Coach)

Adrian Burnside LHP SYRACUSE SKYCHIEFS (AAA)
John Stephens RHP OTTAWA LYNX (AAA)

Phillip Stockman RHP TENNESSEE SMOKIES (AA)

Tristan Crawford RHP FORT MYERS MIRACLE (A ADVANCED)
Trent Oeltjen OUTFIELD FORT MYERS MIRACLE (A ADVANCED)
Luke Hughes INFIELD FORT MYERS MIRACLE (A ADVANCED)
Andrew Graham CATCHER LAKELAND TIGERS (A ADVANCED)
Aaron Mackenzie RHP RANCHO CUCAMONGA QUAKES (A ADVANCED)
Paul Mildren LHP JUPITER HAMMERHEADS (A ADVANCED)
Matthew Wilkinson RHP LANCASTER JETHAWKS (A ADVANCED)

Thomas Brice OUTFIELD KANNAPOLIS INTIMIDATORS (A)
Adam Bright LHP ASHEVILLE TOURISTS (A)
Trent D'Antonio CATCHER GREENSBORO GRASSHOPPERS (A)
Paul Rutgers INFIELD BELOIT SNAPPERS (A)
Dean White INFIELD ROME BRAVES (A)

Bradley Harman INFIELD LAKEWOOD BLUECLAWS (A SHORT SEASON)
Shane Lindsay RHP TRI-CITY DUST DEVILS (A SHORT SEASON)

Craig Lewis INFIELD BROCKTON ROX (IND.)



Netherlands:

Sharnol Adriana IF Tuneros de San Luis (AAA)
Chairon Isenia C Montgomery Biscuits (AA)
Alexander Smit P Elizabethton Twins ®
Eugene Kingsale OF Baltimore Orioles (released)

Selected but not allowed to play by team:

Calvin Maduro - Trenton Thunder (AAA)
Yurendell DeCaster - Indianapolis Indians (AAA)



Team USA:

Davey Johnson is Head Coach

Players ????

Puerto Rico:

Luis Figueroa, PawSox

(Thanks RedSoxAnni)

Team USA Roster posted:

roster

Brant Ust from Wilmington is on it.

I take it this is not the event that MLB was negotiating with Japan but rather a lesser event.

Hmm, if more people think like this I have to agree with the IOC after all on scratching baseball from the summer olympics.

Apart from the US and maybe Canada all other countries consider the IBAF World Cup to be the true one and only Baseball World Championship.

Back here in Holland people find it interesting when you play baseball, but more often than not you have to explain that the MLB is more than a bunch of steroid users who hit homeruns and then walk around the bases.

After explaining that finally some steroid testing is going on and that even the best hitters only hit a HR every now and then that you have to admit that yes, it's a bit awkward the winner is called world champion as there are no national teams competing.

This year the 36th World Cup will be held and finally MLB and IBAF seem to cooperate a little. They decided to push pack the Cup by a couple of weeks so Team USA and others could select more minor leaguers to play (Team USA usually consisted of highschool players till now, ofcourse validating the question how representative the World Cup has been).

In return IBAF allowed it's affiliated countries to compete in the 'greater' event you are referring to: The World Baseball Classic, to be held March 2006, more or less during Spring Training.

This will be very interesting, if only because Andruw Jones and Sidney Ponson finally get a chance to play for our national team

In play today Canada shutout Sweden 10-0. The highest level of any of the Canadian players is AA. There are several with that level of experience. There is also one former AAA player. Here is a link to the lineup.
http://66.241.210.162/files/2005WorldCupTeamRoster.pdf

Here is a link to today's game story involving Canada.
http://slam.canoe.ca/CPSportsTicker/CANOE-...up-Cda-Swe.html

In other action today the U.S. beat Columbia 12-1. Here is a link to all the scores, the schedule and the standings.
http://wkhonkbal.nl/content.php?gid=3&pid=21&sid=1&taal=eng

Here is a link to a story on the U.S. game.
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/new..._milb&fext=.jsp

In action today, the United States lost to Japan 7-6 and Canada was shut out by Cuba 7-0.
Here are the standings as of Sat. Sept. 10th

Poule A
Rank Team W L PCT
1 Netherlands(NED) 7 0 1.000
2 Cuba(CUB) 7 0 1.000
3 Panama(PAN) 5 2 0.714
4 Korea(KOR) 3 3 0.500
5 China(CHN) 3 4 0.429
6 Canada(CAN) 2 4 0.333
7 Brazil(BRA) 1 5 0.167
8 Sweden(SWE) 1 5 0.167
9 South Africa(RSA) 0 6 0.000

Poule B
Rank Team W L PCT
1 Japan(JPN) 6 1 0.857
2 Nicaragua(NCA) 5 1 0.833
3 Puerto Rico(PUR) 5 2 0.714
4 U.S.A.(USA) 4 2 0.667
5 Chinese Taipei(TPE) 3 3 0.500
6 Australia(AUS) 2 4 0.333
7 Spain(ESP) 2 4 0.333
8 Colombia(COL) 1 5 0.167
9 Czech Republic(CZE) 0 6 0.000

In action on Monday Sept. 12:

USA 7 Czechs 4
Canada 12 Brazil 4
Australia 5 Columbia 1
Puerto Rico 7 Spain 4
Panama 5 South Africa 1
Nicaragua 11 Taipei 4
Soth Korea 12 Sweden 2

Result of consolation games played on Sat. Sept.17
The US captured 7th place with a win over Puerto Rico. Here are the other results of games played.

Saturday 17 september (places 5-8)

10:30 Amsterdam USA - Puerto Rico 11-3
14:30 Amsterdam Japan - Nicaragua 8-1

Saturday 17 september (3rd Place)

Haarlem Panama - Netherlands 7-6 _ Panama as you see captured the Bronze Medal in the Tournament with the win over the Netherlands. Here is a link to USA Baseball for the story on the US game today.

http://www.usabaseball.com/sports/m-pro-ba.../091705aaa.html

Cuba will play South Korea later today.

In the Championship game which conclude just a short time ago, Cuba shut out South Korea 3-0 to win the Gold Medal Here is a link to the box score of that game.
http://statistieken.wkhonkbal.nl/stats.php/event/box/84

Here is a link to Baseball America's story on the winning Cuban team.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/...18worldcup.html

Here is an interesting link that gives the Tournament's offensive and pitching leaders.

http://statistieken.wkhonkbal.nl/stats.php/?taal=eng