World baseball classic ‘23 - Ohtani vs Trout epic duel

Ohtani final strike on Trout. my god that slider :eyes:

edit: posted full at bat here

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Congrats to Japan and the world's greatest player . :+1:

I watched a bit of the game. It’s awesome that the two best players in the world, Trout and Ohtani, who happen to be teammates, faced each other in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Ohtani struck him out swinging as shown in your video clip.

This tournament may have gone under the radar but while it was on it was easily the most watched sporting event in the world. TSN said that over 60 million people in Japan alone watched their team in preliminary round games. I don’t know how many watched yesterday’s final.

yet we will likely never see Conner McDavid and Sidney Crosby play together against Ovechkin and Kucherov. thank you mr Betteman.

Ohtani is the unicorn of pro-sports unicorns. it is like a top line NHL centerman playing elite goaltender every 4 games. i'm not a baseball fan, but it is utterly ridiculous what that guy can do in the context of the modern age of pro baseball.

who is comparable in other sports? maybe Neon Deion Sanders? i literally cannot think of a comparable in pro sports. i know there are olympic athletes who cross over, like cyclists and cross-country skiing for example.

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full at bat here

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i guess football players who play offense and defense are comparable. well not necessarily linemen.

Yeah no one else comes to mind. Maybe Bo Jackson. In times gone by playing two sports or different positions was much more common. Bud Grant comes to mind. There are a few players, if I recall correctly, that have won both Grey Cups and Stanley Cups.

What is amazing is that the Angels have both Ohtani and Trout yet they still stink. I conclude that it is probably the most “team” of all North American team sports. The Oilers will handily make the playoffs with not having much besides McDavid and Draisaitl, which I think is an excellent comparable.

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yea i've seen twitter discussion about this regarding Trout and Ohtani being on same team. i had no idea the Angels were so bad lol. but yes baseball is very team. so is football, i'm not sure Mahomes does it without Kelce for example.

re: Oilers - being the suck and somehow getting to draft high in successive years has benefits. they may yet still waste these years. lol see the years 2010 - 2016:

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Nail Yakupov :rofl:

i know right. and Jesse Puljujarvi my god.

when the team's best hitter comes out in relief to strike out the other team's best hitter = capital W WINNNING

my new NHL rule idea to end games faster and avoid shootouts (in regular season only) - make a player other than the goalie play goal in overtime. or make the EBUG play.

Or just shoot pucks at Evander Kane.

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hahaha yes

Contrast this list with the Jets list of first round picks, which were all chosen much lower with the exception of Laine and are clearly much better.

2011 Scheifele (7) - initially laughed at
2012 Trouba (9) - now captain of the NYR
2013 Morrissey (13) - now the best Canadian defenceman in the world if not the best defenceman in the world
2014- Ehlers (9) -speedy game breaker
2015- Connor (17) -47 goals last year
2015- Roslovic (25)-not a superstar but #1 center in Columbus
2016- Laine (2)-best shot in the world- no center for him
2016- Stanley (18)- borderline D who struggles to stay in the Jets lineup

The Jets also drafted good to great players during these years like:

Lowry (3rd round)
Hellebuyck (5th round)
Copp (4th round)
Appleton (6th round)

It’s probably not fair to compare the Oilers draft picks from 2011-2016 with the Jets as arguably there was no one that did it better over these years, particularly in the first round. Still, I am amazed that GM’s aren’t fired more often.

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well yes. but there is also this perception that owners are generally less involved than they really are in day to day management decisions. the best organizations are the ones where owners let managers do their jobs. so many GMs get the punt for decisions that were made over their heads.

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the athletic and the hockey news have some great articles on this very subject.

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Owners shouldn’t be involved, but tell that to Jerry Jones. Not a recipe for success. I’m not sure if you’re suggesting that owners meddle in Edmonton but as far as I know they don’t in Winnipeg. Anyway, we’re wY off topic.

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That last pitch was just NASTY.

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