Comments on: Israel Opens WBC Qualifier With 7-3 Victory Over South Africa

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:03:42 +0000

Italy had several non-Italians just help it win the Euro Championships (see my post from Tuesday), and Italian-Americans are a staple of Italian international teams. I do think Italy uses more indigenous players than most European teams but the only countries that really don’t use “passport” players are in North America and Asia. And China has been recruiting Americans of Chinese heritage for its WBC club, too.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:02:01 +0000

Decker did play a decent amount of outfield this year at San Antonio.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 21:21:23 +0000

Will Decker keep playing LF? Has he ever really played outfield?…

By: ScottAZ

ScottAZ — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:57:48 +0000

its obvious you don't know what Vatican City is. Why don't you research it before you comment

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:47:06 +0000

I don't think Italy is going to grant citizenship to every catholic in the world. I wonder if you even know the rules that you are complaining about.

By: ScottAZ

ScottAZ — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 14:14:02 +0000

again, i really dislike these rules (if there are any) for what constitutes eligibility to participate for a country. Players who are 3rd, 4th generation American playing for Israel because they happen to identify religiously to Judaism? Anyone else see the ridiculousness in that? What happens when Vatican City wants to field a team and every player who identifies as Catholic world wide wants to play on it? That would literally be 70% of MLB rosters.
Real rules need to be layed down to stop this foolishness. You either need to be born in the country or be a citizen of the country to participate, plain and simple