The World Baseball Classic concluded last night with an extra-inning championship game in Los Angeles with Team Japan besting Team South Korea, 5-3. The WBC has certainly drawn a wide array of opinions since its debut in 2006. Some (mostly ESPN and Bud Selig) have glorified its diverse, international nature while others have referred to it as glorified Spring Training games or Selig’s attempt to sell a few extra t-shirts overseas. But, I feel at the very least, it was an intriguing event. Here are three storylines that interested me the most.

3. The “Little” Guys Get a Chance

The WBC offered a chance for “David beats Goliath” scenario. And such a scenario definitely occurred when the Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic; not once but twice. It undoubtedly was the thrill of a lifetime for a team of nobodies to defeat a team full of all-stars. Although, these defeats could have easily been played up from the angle that the Dominicans wet the bed twice rather than the Netherlands won twice,as the Dominicans showed ineptitude at the plate as well as in the field. They committed a combined six errors in the two games and managed to score only three runs against an unimposing Dutch pitching staff. However, regardless of how the Dutch won they certainly made for an intriguing storyline.

2. USA Not At Its Best

The USA again was beat at its own game. And many feel they did not deserve to win, including Japanese star Ichiro Suzuki. He expressed his disappointment in the US roster on www.japantoday.com saying, “I didn’t feel anything special about playing against [the US]. Looking at their lineup today, I just felt sorry for them.”

It is hard to blame a player for wanting to focus all his efforts into preparing for the upcoming MLB season, after all that is what they are paid for. But imagine the US roster’s potential. Here’s my USA dream team: Starting Pitchers: Tim Lincecum, CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Brandon Webb, and Roy Halladay. Bullpen: Jon Papelbon, Joe Nathan, Brad Lidge, B.J. Ryan, Brian Fuentes, Bobby Jenks, and Jonathon Broxton. (Note- I realize that’s a lot of closers, but it’s fun to think about.) I’ll list my hitters by position, and it does include three players on this year’s roster. C- Joe Mauer, 1B- Mark Teixeira, 2B- Chase Utley, 3B- David Wright, SS- Jimmy Rollins, RF- Josh Hamilton, CF- Grady Sizemore, LF- Ryan Braun.

I’d list some bench players but I don’t think it would make much difference considering the existing starters. But even with all the talent on my dream roster, there is still a legitimate question whether or not they could top either team in the championship game, which brings me to my next storyline.

1. Far East Brand of Baseball Wins Out

Japan and Korea faced each other for the fifth time last night in the title game. They were clearly the best two teams in the WBC not only by their records (neither team lost a game aside from the games they played against each other) but by their performance on the field as well. Both teams played an extremely disciplined style of baseball and that, coupled with their obvious desire and national pride, took them to the final game. Both teams made all the plays, moved runners up, and got timely hits. Some have called it small-ball or smart-ball, but I’d just call it baseball; the way it’s supposed to be played. In the tenth inning, Ichiro Suzuki’s eight-pitch at bat against Chang Yong Lim ended with a sharp line drive up the middle and plated two runs. His hard-nosed at bat was a fitting way to end the scoring as he capitalized on a hanging splitter by Lim, the way a good baseball player should.