WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: South Korea 9 - Chinese Taipei 0

                                      "The Taipei Massacre"

"The Taipei Massacre": I'm not talkin' about a World War II battle. I'm talkin' about a game at The Tokyo Dome.

This was the baseball equivalent of setting a platter of barbecue ribs in front of a pack of hungry hounds. Koreans are physically huge and tough - in the six feet, 200 lbs. + range. They are baseball maniacs. Compared to them the Chinese Taipei players looked like a group of willowy bamboo stalks by the bubbling brook.

Things immediately broke badly for Taipei in the top of the first inning, when their lead pitcher walked the first three Korean batters and then served up a homerun pitch to the clean-up man, who knocked it into the Sea of Japan for a 4-0 lead with no outs.

Amazingly, the Chinese Taipei manager let the kid stay in the game, whereupon he immediately gave up two more runs for a six run first inning. How this pitcher is going to live this down back in his country, I don't know.

Later on, the Koreans scored three more runs, as the Chinese dugout sat there, stone-faced, looking like those life-sized terracotta battle statues unearthed at the 2,000 year-old tomb of the Emperor Chi'a. Fortunately, the game was played in Japan, so the whole team can commit hara-kiri if it wants to.

But first Chinese Taipei has to play an elimination game against the loser of yesterday's matchup with Japan - Red China! ??? a game which betting touts and international baseball analysts are already referring to as: THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR!!!!!