Round 1 Games come to close for Baseball World Cup

We are now well into the first round of games at the 2009 World Cup we have had a few upsets. Not field related but  competition wise. USA’s losing to Venezuela. WOW. Great game and exciting but it wasnt supposed to happen.   Not that it couldn’t happen..it wasn’t supposed to in my book.  Being a little biased here but we had them headed for Holland.  Oh well..it is a game of adjustments.  With that being said that threw a monkey wrench into our staffing of the 2009 World Cup to help teams so we are moving one of our guys ( Chad Kropff) from Amsterdam to Italy.   ( We had a few of our boys attend the game and hang with team USA guys) Team USA took a big hit by getting beat by VEnz. But better these guys than Cuba or Australia or even Holland later on.  Its going to be a very competitive tournament.  USA has some strong bats and a good group of starters… but even last night struggled with the junk pitchers.  That is what happened when they got beat by Venezuela.  They were up 7-1 in the through the 2^nd then they brought in a guy who through nothing but off speed stuff and basically stopped the bats until the 10^th inning.  The new international rule of putting to guys on base for each team went into effect.  Final was 13-9 Venz. Tonight we beat Germany in front of the packed house.  The german fans really surprised me as they knew quite a bit about baseball.  When to cheer, boo etc.. Great fans! 

Finishing up here in Regensburg this weekend before heading south the ball park is holding up very well and the attendance of the games have been great. Last night we had almost 10,000 an din the past 3 days have drawn over 20,000 just in Regensburg.  Prague Stockholm Zagreb Barcelona also turning in big  numbers.   Thanks to a great Ground crew of volunteers from the local teams.  You guys are the best!