a win against South Korea six runs to none. Once the game concluded, a format controversy would be brought up to light as South Korea would finish with the better overall and head-to-head record by the end of the tournament. The impact of this controversy was changing the format in the next edition, as double-elimination would replace round-robin in the first and second round. Wind-up News organizations had mixed predictions on who would win the final. On one hand, Japan had more experience in professional baseball, particularly from Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball whereas Cuba would consider themselves amateurs. On the other, Japan came into the knockouts as a fourth-seed and Cuba has more experience in international baseball, winning 25 of the 39 Baseball World Cups (the former premier global competition in baseball). In addition, first baseman Albert Pujols argued that most of the Cubans could compete in the MLB if they were rightfully given the opportunity to. On top of this, both were the only countries to make top four at all editions in the Summer Olympics, although Cuba would have three gold medals and one silver medal whereas Japan would have two bronze medals and one silver medal up to this point. However, Japan holds a 4–3 record to the final, while Cuba has a 5–2 record. Therefore, by the rules of the World Baseball Classic, Inc., WBCI would declare Cuba as the favorites to win the match due to their overall record in the tournament up to the final. Championship Summary The final was played on March 20, 2006 at Petco Park in San Diego. This was the third game played at the park in the tournament, after the semi-finals where Japan beat South Korea and Cuba beat the Dominican Republic. The championship was played in front of nearly 43,000 people and began at 3:40 p.m. Pacific Time. Petco Park is widely known for being a pitcher's park, due to the high number of strikeouts and intentional walks likely coming from the marine layer and wind speed. On this day, the temperature recorded as with 10 mph in a windy setting. Umpires consisted of Americans Tom Hallion (HP), Bob Davidson (1B), Ed Hickox (2B), Chris Guiccione (RF), Australian Neil Poulton (LF), and Puetro Rican Carlos Rey (3B). Japan changed their starting pitcher to Daisuke Matsuzaka–one of the pioneers of the Gyroball and owns a diverse