The 30 man US roster for the World Baseball Classic was released this afternoon. There’s a couple of Rangers on there. They are 1B Mark Teixeira, and SS Mike Young. Former Ranger Alex Rodriguez is also on the roster. Some other current and former Rangers on the various rosters are:
Japan: Akinori Otsuka
Korea: Chan Ho Park
Canada: Aaron Myette
Mexico: Esteban Loaiza, Dennys Reyes, Ismael Valdez, Benji Gil, Adrian Gonzalez
Panama: Einar Diaz, Roberto Kelly (as the manager)
Puerto Rico: Pudge Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Ricky Ledee, Ruben Sierra, Andres Torres, Pedro Valdes
Dominican Republic: Francisco Cordero, Julio Franco, Alfonso Soriano, Sammy Sosa
Italy: Dan Miceli, Mark DeRosa, Vince Sinisi, Frank Catalanotto, David Dellucci
Venezuela: Richard Hidalgo
Some of these are provisional rosters, and not the final 30, because as of this afternoon, not all the 30 man rosters are in, and aren’t due till March 2nd. It will be nice to see Roberto Kelly pop up again, I liked him when he played for the Rangers for a couple of seasons. I believe Mark DeRosa has already declined. I seem to remember there being more than that who have declined, but I can’t find that at the moment. Also, some of these guys (Juan Gonzalez, Richard Hidalgo, Ismael Valdez) are without major league teams, I believe. Be interesting to see them turn up.
The more I think about the WBC, the more exciting I think it could be, if the flavor of this in last year’s Home Run Derby is any indicator. It’s one thing where I feel the latin countries have us beat hands down in is excitement at the park. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – I wish Chan Ho Park had worked here. Because when he first got here, all the Koreans would turn up at the park, take over a whole section, and did a lot of hooting and hollering any time Chan Ho did anything good. When he tanked, that went away, and I missed it. It was a LOT of fun.