March 21, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Some World Baseball Classic leftovers ... that can be served before we hit the finish line:

Freddie Freeman: He played for Canada to honour his mother, who died of melanoma when he was 10 years old. It’s why he always wears long sleeve undershirts on game days no matter the temperature. No matter the park.

“I wish she was here so I could ask her if I am doing the right thing?” Freeman said during the a WBC workout in Arizona. “I get emotional when I put this Canada jersey on because it’s been 23 years since she’s been gone. It seems like yesterday.”

My sister and I lost our mother, age 51. I was 20 and it happened six months after my father passed at the young age of 60 when I was 19. My sister had it tougher, being 4 1/2 years younger. On a personal note, I think I have lived a life my father a baseball man, would be proud of, but I did little to honour my mother’s memory. Not the way Freeman has honored his late mom.

Rosemary grew up Peterborough, Ont., moved to Windsor, where she met Freddie’s father, also named Fred, at a Salvation Army event.

“I know she’s proud of me and she was proud of us when we played ball and when we won games, too, as kids,” Freeman said “She doesn’t want me to go out there and go out there for fun. She wants me to go out there and win, especially when I’m putting on that jersey that represents her and my dad.”

It was my turn to ask a question and personally there was a lot of emotion in what Canada’s first baseman had to say. I could relate. So I had a choice: either start crying or make a joke.

“Well, I guess what I wrote was completely wrong,” I told Freeman.

He looked at me with a puzzled look.

“I wrote that you we were playing for Canada because of your utter distaste and utter dislike for the Team USA manager,” I mumbled with a straight face. The USA manager is former Blue Jays infielder Mark DeRosa, who like Freeman came up in the Atlanta Braves system. DeRosa lives in Atlanta, as did Freeman until he headed to Los Angeles after the 2021 season. The two are close friends.

Freeman: “YOU WROTE THAT?”

Me: “Yes ... in an email ... to the Team USA manager,” when you committed to play for Canada.

Freeman howled. Then he told about going for diner with DeRosa and coach Brian McCann with DeRosa holding up four fingers ... signalling an intentional walk.

* * *

Plan M: Every day you head to the park, you have a plan. Some days there is a Plan A, B, C, D, etc.

One day my idea was to ask Canadians who was the most important person wearing a red uniform?

I thought it might be CF Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC). O’Neill was on the injury list last year five times. The insurer balked initially. He was receiving challenges from his St. Louis Cardinals camp. Yet he showed. My thought was ... O’Neill was so important because had he not shown, how many strikes would Freeman have seen?

So O’Neill was my guess. The idea died quickly. I asked 13 people in uniform “who is the most important person wearing a Canadian jersey?”

Greg Hamilton (Orleans, Ont.) won in a walk with 10 votes and that ended the idea. For Hamilton, Baseball Canada national team director and bench coach at the WBC, would rather give his teams signs to the opposition rather than talk about himself. SS Otto Lopez (Montreal, Que.), Freeman and O’Neill had the other votes.

* * *

Walks continue to hurt: Canadian pitchers walked 10 hitters from Mexico in the elimination game, hit three more batters and threw a wild pitch to finish with the four games with 24 walks in 33 innings.

The most painful came in the sixth inning with Canada trailing Mexico 3-2, one out and Mexico had runners at second and third. Cade Smith (Abbotsford, BC) walked No. 9 hitter Austin Barnes after getting ahead 1-2. Barnes worked a seven-pitch walk.

Had Smith retired Barnes, then Canada could have walked Randy Arozarena intentionally, to face Alex Verdugo, who was hitless on the day. Arozarena doubled inside the third-base bag and later scored in the four-run inning, giving Mexico a 7-2 lead.

In fairness, it was one of three walks Barnes earned as Rob Zastryzny (Edmonton, Alta.) walked him in the second and Ben Onyshko (Winnipeg, Man.) in the seventh.

* * *

Howdy Podnar: The scariest thing for a big-league club -- I mean dangerous -- for the Tampa Bay Rays is watching Arozarena run after fly balls in the outfield during batting practice wearing cowboy boots and a sombrero. You can turn an ankle quicker than saying “Tom Post or Larry Mahan,” two buckin’ cowboys who started their own line of footwear.

* * *

Good Luck: To Pierre Karl Péladeau OQ, president and CEO of Quebecor Inc. who bought the Montreal Aouettes. When he owned the paper in 2012 he phoned me New Year’s Eve and said he would fly myself and my family to Cooperstown. So, the private plane flew Montreal-Toronto-Albany, NY. (The flight attendent service was only so-so … my son Bob).

We were at Olympic Stadium the night Charles Bronfman bought the Als. Someone asked “Charles why would you buy a football team … you’re not a football guy?”

Bronfman , a proud Montrealer, puffed on his pipe and said “I don’t know I guess its why they put that thing around my neck.” He had recently been presented with the Order of Canada.

* * *

How much do they make?: A few years ago I was mumbling at Seneca College … Prof Humber’s class. A guy raised his hand and said “I’m tired of guys becoming Canadian — just to make money.” Who would that be? “Freddie Freeman — he wasn’t even born here and he played for Canada in the (2017) WBC.”

I explained the financial breakdown. “Each team gets $300,000 if they don’t get out of the first round … Baseball Canada keeps half, the $150,000 is split equally among the 28-man roster … whatever that is. He is playing to honour his mother, not to earn money. I’m not sure how much it is.”

Another ball fan said: “I have a calcuator, it’s $5,357 a player for the three games.”

Unsure how much it was this spring.

* * *

Shout out: When Freeman made his return to the Dodgers lineup Saturday playing as a DH, he was later asked who impressed him the most with Team Canada by a sideline reporter. He answered: “Our second baseman Eddy Julien (Quebec, Que.) and catcher Bo Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) … they’re both going to be good ones.”

* * *

TV ratings: In Japan, the game against Korea on TBS registered a 44.4 rating, making it the most-watched game in the history of the WBC in any country outrating all sports competition during the Tokyo Olympics. Japan’s four First Round games averaged a 42.3 rating in the country.

In Taiwan, Chinese Taipei’s four first round games averaged 1.301 million viewers on EBC News, an increase of +151% from the 2017. The average viewership of all four Chinese Taipei games were higher than all other sports programming in the market since September 2021.

In Korea, the four games featuring South Korea on SBS/KBS/MBC averaged 1.781 million viewers marking a +35% increase over 2017. South Korea’s game against Japan, which averaged 2.709 million viewers, was the most-watched WBC game in Korea since their championship game against Japan in 2009.

In Puerto Rico, WAPA Deportes delivered a +77% increase in comparison to 2017 for all games featuring Puerto Rico in the First Round. Puerto Rico’s game against Dominican Republic averaged a 62% share.

In the Dominican Republic, viewership for the Dominican team’s games were +37% compared to 2017. In Mexico, the first two games on Imagen featuring Mexico registered an increase of +10% compared to 2017.

One round and it was almost gone: After the first round, the WBC broke the tournament’s all-time sales records for merchandise across e-commerce and the four host venues at Chase Field in Phoenix; loanDepot Park in Miami; the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo; and Taichung Intercontinental Stadium in Taiwan.

* * *

Someone is making history: Tuesday will produce one of two results: Team USA will become the second-ever back-to-back WBC champs, joining Japan (2006-09). Or the Japan will finish the second ever undefeated WBC run, joining the Dominican in 2013.