MLB Showdown Obsession

Third time's the charm for the World Baseball Classic. The 2013 version offered even more tweaks to the format, but no change more noticeable than the lineup. As opposed to in 2006, the 2009 WBC involved the pitfall where teams that went winless in round 1 not only were eliminated, but they'd have to requalify to participate in 2013 as the Classic was finally ready to expand the number of countries beyond the original 16. Twelve countries from across the world were invited. The qualifiers took place in 2012 with the teams divided into four double-elimination brackets comprised of three new teams and one of the last place teams from 2009. From that chaos, two new teams emerged to play with the big dogs in the proper competition, while Panama and South Africa were gone (South Africa has yet to qualify ever since). As with the previous years, a number of MLB players from the upcoming 2013 season participated in the competition wearing the colors of their home countries. 11 of the ...

 Good seasons are very common, and happen all the time for multiple players on just about every team...Great seasons are a bit more uncommon but it's not shocking to see entire all star teams comprised of guys having such types of seasons...Once-in-a-lifetime are as the name implies and the chances are rare that you get even one of those guys a season. So imagine the odds when two of those types of seasons happened in the same year. Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox was putting together a .400 BA season, to date the last time it has ever happened in baseball, meanwhile in the Bronx, Joe DiMaggio found a way to outshine him by putting together a record breaking hitting streak of 56 games. Each man would be far and away the obvious choice for MVP, but only one of them was getting the award in 1941. Not that either man was lacking in such recognition in their career (Williams would win 2 MVPs in his career, DiMaggio would win 3) but to take home the hardware in '41 would be the u...