THE SMALLEST BALL OF ALL

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to KNBR's radio broadcast of the Giants game tonight. I didn't care about who was visiting or who won. I cared about the introduction to the big leagues of pitcher Matt Cain, who, at 20, isn't even legal to drink. My interest in watching this hot young player debut led to an article on MLB.com, where I learned that Brian Burres, who's been a pitching star for Double-A Norwich, may get called up this season. I met Brian back during spring training in Scottsdale. He was kind enough to sign my ball. Since I'm all over the idea of the "I remember when..." story, I would pay top dollar for seats at SBC if he debuted in San Francisco this year.

My interest in young Cain, and Burres, unpolished players rubbing elbows with their professional icons, led me to information about World Cup Baseball. I knew nothing of this tournament, but quickly read their refreshingly basic site, including 3D video tours of each host stadium in the Netherlands, where this year's classic occurs.

It made me miss 2005 spring training. Gosh, when I think back over the entire season, the most special few days of baseball I've experienced this year occured before the season even started.

The 36th World Cup Baseball games run from September 2-17 in and around Holland. There are 5 stadia in 5 cities, some brand new, one of them decades old. The average capacity of these venues is 3,000, with the largest park holding 6,000.

Now, that's my size of baseball.

I wish I had known about this particular World Cup. It won't occur again until 2009. I'm bummed I lost my chance to end the major league season the way I started it—by returning to quiet, small games where the collective buzz of mid-day insects competes only with the crack of a bat.