By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — It was a version of one of those old baseball jokes, a Three Stooges routine without laughs. Isn’t there a manual that advises it’s never a good idea to steal second base when there’s another teammate already there?
Japan knows how to play the game, precisely, carefully. There is an ethic, a tradition of repetition that leads to perfection, a style that made the nation the World Baseball Classic champion the only two previous times the tournament had been played.
But the odds and Puerto Rico caught up with Japan on Monday night at AT&T Park, the Puerto Ricans winning, 3-1, to advance to Tuesday night’s final against the winner of Monday’s Dominican Republic-Netherlands game.
Puerto Rico was in control from the very start on this chill evening, scoring a run in the first and then, after a massive seventh-inning home run by Alex Rios, going in front 3-0.
“They were superior pitching and hitting,” said the Japanese manager, Koji Yamamoto. “I could see an opportunity.”
So, with a run in, one out and Hirokazu Ibata on second and Seiichi Uchikawa on first, Yamamoto called a double steal. It would have worked, or let’s say could have worked if only Ibata hadn’t stayed at second while Uchikawa sped there. Oops.
You’re only allowed one man on each base. Except in comedy films. Uchikawa was out. Yamamoto presumably was out of his mind after the tactic, but that isn’t true. “I wanted to move the runners,” he said. “I don’t regret it.”
Ibata did. He took a few steps toward third and then realized he’d never make it so dashed back to second. Uchikawa didn’t know where to go, so he went no place, stopping between the bases. Rally finished, if it even started at all.
So, Puerto Rico, with a history of great players — Roberto Clemente, the Alomars, Orlando Cepeda, who was at the mound for the first pitch even though he didn’t throw it — but a lack of success recently, proves it still knows how to win.
And Angel Pagan, who will be out there in a few weeks wearing a San Francisco Giants uniform, gets another chance for the Puerto Ricans as a center fielder in Triples Alley at AT&T Park.
Japan had the crowd, maybe two-thirds of the announced 33,683 in the ballpark by the Bay. The fans came with their flags and noise-makers and enthusiasm. “I really felt their support,” said Yamamoto, the manager. Puerto Rico, however, had the edge.
“Their pitchers were really good,” said Yamamoto through a translator. “It was hard to seize the opportunity.”
Their pitchers, six of them, began with Mario Santiago, who in six years had never been in the majors and last year played in Korea. But his resume belied his performance against Japan, as he retired the first 10 batters before giving up a single.
“Now,” said Santiago, “I’m back to the states to accomplish my dream of playing in the major leagues.”
First the accomplishment of another dream, to bring a title to his homeland. “I’m really happy,” he said. “I know the people in Puerto Rico must be so proud of our team that we’ve come so far.”
They made the semis, of course, by defeating the United States, where the World Baseball Classic doesn’t seem to mean as much as it does to the other small nations, especially those around the Caribbean where the sport is almost religion.
There were enough Puerto Ricans in the stands, with their passion and their flags, if not in the same numbers as the Japanese. When pinch hitter Kazuo Matsui flied out to Pagan in center — a perfect ending, for San Francisco as well as Puerto Rico — horns honked and cheers resounded.
On the field, the Puerto Ricans were celebrating in a huge mass of happiness. The Japanese, class all the way, stood on the third base line and in union took a final bow, turning the park over to the ecstatic winners and, as usual after night games at AT&T, the swarming seagulls.
Rios is a legit big leaguer, with 25 blasts and a .304 batting average in 2012 for the White Sox. Atsushi Nohmi came in to pitch the seventh for Japan. The first batter he faced, Mike Aviles, singled. The second, Rios, smashed a ball halfway up the leftfield bleachers.
“It was a very exciting at-bat,” said Rios. “The pitch I hit, I saw it earlier in that at-bat. He threw that change-up and then repeated the change-up. That’s the one I saw. I guess I put a good turn on it.
“It was a very emotional at-bat. The whole tournament has been very exciting.”
And thus far, very successful.
Angel Pagan,