According to dictionary, giant-killing means "the defeat of a team by much weaker opponent". It is the most interesting game for me. But do you think "Netherlands beat Cuba in baseball" is it??
The Netherlands which is famous for soccer beated Cuba which is ranked first in the world. Both team had apractice game in Taiwan for WBC. Many baseball fans would expect Cuba win easily. But the result is 5-0. the Netherlands won. I wondered the strongness of the Netherlands and checked them and I found surprizing acievements.
TheNetherlands is not famous for baseball because they have one of the best soccer team in the world. But actually, they participated in past WBC and beated Dominican Republic twice. 2011, they beated Cuba and won the chamion of 39th IBAF World Cup. Dutch baseball is developing a lot recently.
I think the reason why they are strong is that players fron Curacao Island play in Netherlands national team. It is a fact that soccer is the most popular sport in Netherlands. But in Curacao it is baseball. Curacao Island is located at about 60 km northern from Venezuela. There are many baseball player and some of them play in MLB and NPB.
I wan to introduce 2 players fron Cracao Islands. One is he clean-up,Wladimir Balentien. He plays in Japan and got Home-run king of 2011 season. He hit a home-run againsy Cuba yesterday. The other player is Andruw Jones. He plays in Japan but used to be a best out-fielder in MLB. He hit 434 home-runs in his career and he have got many titles.
According to the research, I don't think the game of Netherlands and Cuba was "giant killing". If they become dark horse, WBC will be much more interesting. Check them out!!
I think this kind of thing is very prevalent in baseball. in a 3 or 5 game series I think Cuba would prevail but in a single game matchup anything is possible.
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