Less than a week until baseball...

My tickets for the World Baseball Classic arrived yesterday. I am now officially psyched.

The first game of the tournament in Orlando has the Dominican Republic team playing Venezuela. The amount of baseball talent that will assmbled on that field (even with the guys who have bailed out already) is almost inconceivable. The infield for the DR team will likely include Albert Pujols, Alfonso Soriano, Miguel Tejada, and Adrian Beltre. Their backups will include Rafael Furcal, Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, and Pedro Feliz. The outfield is almost as stacked, and their pitching is pretty solid, too. The Venezuelan team is not quite as loaded, but their pitching may even be better than the DR team. Starters for Venezuela include Victor Zambrano, Johan Santana, and Freddy Garcia. Throw in a few position players like Bobby Abreu, Magglio Ordonez, Omar Vizquel, Miguel Cabrera, Ramon Hernandez, and more, and this is shaping up to be quite the first-round game.

The only downside to this great matchup is that it is the first of the six games that will be played at the Orlando venue. I have lawn seats, which are general admission. That's OK - I usually buy the cheap seats whenever I go. I am just not familiar with this venue, so I am not sure where to scope out the best "seats" in the lawn area. I suspect that some of the other games, we will be able to sneak into the actual seating area and find some empties. That tactic has been perfected after years of attending the College World Series in Omaha. The only tickets I have ever purchased for that have been the general admission booklets, and we have never sat out in the general admission area. Of course, we usually attend the early round games there, not the packed finals games.

The only plan I have for Tuesday is to show up REALLY early at the stadium. If anyone else has any ideas, I'd be glad to hear 'em.