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Mildly scandalous behavior continues to plague the run-up to the World Baseball Classic. Yesterday, we had Taiwanese scouts disguising themselves as umpires and infiltrating a South Korean exhibition, and today we have a South Korean pro team refusing to play against the Cuban national team because the Cubans were trying to use a "mysterious ball." From Yonhap News:
According to NC officials, the two sides had previously agreed that they would each pitch their own choice of the ball. But just before the match, Cuba demanded a ball by the U.S. brand Brett Bros. be used by both teams.
"The ball had thick and wide seams, and it posed injury risks for our pitchers," one NC official said. "Then Cuba suggested we both play a Taiwanese ball. That ball also had big seams and we said we didn't want to play it. Finally, Cubans brought out some mysterious ball, and again we told them we couldn't play it."
We're going to side with the South Koreans here, because the Brett Bros. website looks like it was designed in 1998, and baseballs with raised seams are dumb and meant to be used by children. We would like to know what the other "mysterious ball" that the Cubans produced looked like, though. Have the Cubans designed some new piece of baseball technology that will surely rock the geopolitical landscape and likely lead to another Cuban Missile Crisis? Probably!
h/t Dan
[Yonhap]
