Japan's manager Sadaharu Oh is tossed into the air after defeating Team Cuba in the March 20 World Baseball Classic final.

Ichiro Suzuki and his less-famous countrymen beat Cuba 10-6 in the championship game March 20 in San Diego, California, ripping a page out of Cuba's score book by winning a major international tournament.

On a festive night when Cuban and Japanese fans danced to Surf City and Sadaharu Oh escorted Hank Aaron -- there's 1,623 home runs between them -- onto the field, Japan won the 16-nation tournament that showed baseball in March can matter.

The classic's slogan is "Baseball Spoken Here." In this case, it's yakyu, which in Japanese means "field ball."

Suzuki doubled, singled and drove in a run. He also scored three times, including in a four-run first inning that proved Cuba's pitchers are vulnerable, after all.

When big league reliever Akinori Otsuka got the final out, he was mobbed near the mound by his teammates. The Japanese then tossed Oh, their manager, into the air twice.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 25, 2006
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