San Juan Mysteries

We've been enjoying our drives around the island exploring, but there are a handful of things that still have us perplexed:

1. Why do the police drive with their lights on all the time? It doesn't necessarily mean they want you to pull over, they're just on all the time.
2. Are the ornamental bars that everyone has on their windows really ornamental or do they serve some other purpose like theft prevention or hurricane protection?
3. When does no parking really mean no parking? Everyone around here seems to park wherever there is a space regardless of the signage.
   

World Baseball Classic Day 1

After a little exploring the area by car, we headed over to Hiram Bithorn Stadium for day 1 of the World Baseball Classic. On the upside, parking was only $3. On the downside, we had to stand in line for an hour and a half to pick up our tickets from will call. Not the smoothest run operation.

Game 1 was the Dominican Republic vs the Netherlands. We missed Eugene Kingsale scoring in the first inning, but cheered for him in subsequent at bats. The sun was out the whole game and the stadium was about half full. The Netherlands ended up beating the Dominican Republic 3 to 2.

After killing a couple of hours at the mall across the street, we settled in for Panama vs Puerto Rico in game 2. The locals came out in force to cheer on their team. The rain held off and Puerto Rico ended up walking all over Panama beating them 7 to 0.

Today is the loosers bracket of Panama vs Dominican Republic. Tomorrow will be Netherlands vs Puerto Rico in the winners bracket.

Other WBC scores so far:

• Japan and Korea play Monday to determine the winner of Pool A.
• Pool B kicks off today with RSA v CUB and AUS v MEX.
• Yesterday USA beat Canada 6 to 5 and Venezuela killed Italy 7 to 0.

World Baseball Classic Announces Provisinal Rosters

The main reason we are heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico, is to catch Pool D play of the World Baseball Classic. The WBC announced provisional rosters yesterday and it looks like we're in for some pretty good baseball. Pool D is made up of the Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Panama, and Puerto Rico.

You would think that with the Classic kicking off in 41 days, they'd have more than just the provisional rosters out, but it sounds like some MLB teams are pushing back on letting their star players participate. The LA Angels have scratched John Lackey and are working to pull Vladimir Guerrero and Mike Napoli. The Yankees have denied Jorge Posada what is most likely his last opportunity to play in the WBC, but have given the OK for 13 other players to participate. The key factor in these decisions seems to be injuries that caused players to miss part of last season or recovery from surgery during the off season.

Our beloved Red Sox look to be fairly well represented this tournament. Making the provisional roster are Jason Bay (CAN), Javier Lopez (PUR), Mike Lowell (PUR), Daisuke Matsuzaka (JPN), Hideki Okajima (JPN), David "Big Papi" Ortiz (DOM), Dustin Pedroia (USA), Ramon Ramirez (DOM), and Kevin Youkilis (USA).

Looking forward to sun, great food, and amazing baseball.