Korea beats Mexico 8-2 in WBC

South Korea beat Mexico 8-2 in Pool 1 play for the 2009 World Baseball Classic before a barely half-full crowd of 22,337 at San Diego's Petco Park late Sunday night. Unlike during a 2006 WBC match in Orange County, South Korea did not try to claim San Diego's main baseball diamond as sovereign ROK territory.

[UPDATE: Matt at "화이팅! True Stories of Korean Baseball" has a nice write-up on the game, and he actually watched it. He also mentions the dumb Dokdo sign that Brian in Chŏllanam-do also writes about.]

A few hours earlier, Japan had defeated Cuba 6-0 before a crowd of 20,179, meaning rivals Japan and South Korea will go head to head for a third time, Tuesday, March 17, at 8 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time (5 p.m. in Hawaii; noon on Wednesday in Korea and Japan).

The disappointing crowd size are reminiscent of the 1994 World Cup's lackluster turnout, though Japan and South Korea both had a lot of empty seats during the 2002 World Cup as well, despite the hype surrounding the event. (Then again, the San Diego Padres themselves had an average attendance last year of only 29,969 in the same stadium, and that's for a reasonably popular local team; maybe Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Cuba drew reasonable numbers considering they're not locals or favorites, except possibly for Mexico which actually borders San Diego.)

Hey, did anyone notice how the WBC logo looks vaguely like a Korean t'aegŭk (태극/太極), especially the elusive sataegŭk (사태극)?