TUESDAY COMMENTARY – DON’T BLINK

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 & LTD Radio)

Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug.

So sings Mark Knopfler and Mary Chapin Carpenter, and that’s a great analogy for Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic.

Oh yes, I’m following it closely and I’ll explain why in a moment.

But our country opened Sunday with an easy 18-8 rout of Great Britain in Phoenix. I mean, Great Britain even has a team? They invoked the mercy rule after seven innings, which I didn’t even know they had in pro baseball.

We’d barely stopped laughing before Team USA did the exact same thing to us on Monday night. The pre-tournament favourite Americans scored nine runs in the first inning on the way to a 12-1 victory over Canada before close to 30,000 fans at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.

Yikes.

USA sent 12 batters to the plate in the first inning. In truth, they probably could’ve invoked the mercy rule after the first. Gosh knows Canada’s starting pitcher Mitch Bratt would’ve been fine with that.

So now at 1-1, Canada looks to rebound Tuesday with a matinee clash against Columbia, also in Phoenix.

What has me loving this edition of the World Baseball Classic is many things: patriotism obviously, the World Cup-style format, and the very quick pace.

It’s a race to three wins to move on, so Canada’s embarrassing loss to the Americans wasn’t fatal. It just hurt their feelings. However now they’re in must-win territory. That was fast!

North Battleford’s Andrew Albers is on this year’s Team Canada and the last time the event was played, Regina’s Dustin Molleken was in the starting rotation.

Perhaps the greatest Canadian Blue Jay ever, Ernie Whitt, is Canada’s coach again and having him in the dugout just feels right.

Ya they play baseball everyday in the majors but that seems to go on forever and the games don’t mean a ton.

But in this World Baseball Classic if you blink, you miss it.

That’s why I’m giving you the tip today, not to.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, YouTube Live, WQEE and iHeartRadio)