world baseball classic hodgepodge

[west coast orange and black]

feel free to throw something into this ongoing world baseball classic thread.
posts can be about players, managers, applied rules, uniforms, whatever.

f'rinstance:
8-year hated dodger alum jim lefebvre is gonna manage china's squad.

how did this come about?
how did the l.a.-born lefebvre, who has coached on 3 of the 5 california teams, wind up in china?

[Bob Hannah]

how did this come about?
how did the l.a.-born lefebvre, who has coached on 3 of the 5 california teams, wind up in china?
Tony, sheds a bit'o light on Lefebvre's rambling halfway around the globe to stay involved in baseball. Its from the mlb.com site so you can't expect too much from it.

On the positive side, he's nurturing the sport in a country not known for baseball.

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/wbc/article.jsp?content=010706_a

[Bob Hannah]

Here's another story from the same site-Smoltz pulled out.

http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/wbc/article.jsp?content=011006_a