Former Team USA skipper Buck Martinez said he recalls everything from the game in Anaheim, California, where his team and manager Sadaharu Oh's Japan squad squared off in the second round of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006.
"I recall me exchanging the lineup card at home plate to (umpire) Bob Davidson and asked Mr. Oh how many home runs he hit. And then he asked me how many home runs I hit," Martinez, who came up with 58 homers in his 17-year major league career (Oh had 868 in NPB), said with a laugh before Thursday's China-Australia game at Tokyo Dome.
The first WBC was a big deal for Japan as it was the first time ever that it formed an all-pro national team and competed with a major leaguer-filled U.S. squad. But Martinez said that it was "tremendous honor" to play against the Asian country, too.