Japan and Cuba will be squaring off in the World Baseball Classic final tonight. I won't be able to watch it, but I'm hoping to listen to part of the game (if not all of it) on the radio or the web when I get home.

I was actually able to see the second semifinal match between Japan and Korea on Saturday. Coming into it, Korea had beaten Japan in both of their previous encounters. In fact, Korea was undefeated in the Classic entering the game. Those two bits of information gave me hope that Japan would win.

There are times in baseball when the odds of something happening are so low that the chances of it actually happening grow.

That's why it didn't come as too much of a surprise that Japan ended up beating Korea by a score of 6-0, which brightened my weekend because the Dominican Republic, the other team I predicted would be in the finals, lost to Cuba earlier in the day.

I'm rooting for Japan to take the title. I admire their style of play. I like their undisguised determination to put the ball in play every time they come to the plate and the hustle they display on the base paths. It's such a change from the more complacent playing style some of our big league stars show.

Tonight, we'll see it's enough to help Japan defeat Cuba.