SHARK VS MARLINS 2013

THE BASEBALL SEASON IS UPON US!!!

The Nationals and the Shark are back in action on Monday, and Sharkadina will be there chomping for the win.  The Nats are going into the season as favorites to win the NL East and the Shark is going into the season ready to make that a reality.

The Miami Marlins will make for a nice snack on the Shark's journey to Feast on the East.

See you Monday.

More to come.

Shark Vs Australia

In December 2007, a shark ate a kangaroo. You read that right, a shark ate a kangaroo. For those too lazy to read the actual BBC report I'll summarize it. Basically, a guy was walking his dog on the beach and saw a kangaroo bound out to sea and then get devoured by a shark. The guy told his friends about it and they all accused him of being drunk or high, because what are friends for, really, if not to believe you when you tell them the MOST AWESOME STORY EVER? Anyway, a second guy said he saw it too and then a kangaroo caracas was found on the beach and everyone was all like "OK, guy, I guess you weren't drunk or high, guy." If I was that guy, I would probably get some new friends. And never go into the ocean again. 

It's unclear if the kangaroo had the logo for the Australian World Baseball Classic team branded on its hide or if the shark had a Dutch Honkbal teardrop tattoo, but we can only assume they did and the shark was warning the country of Australia they would lose a baseball game over five years later. In a world where sharks eat kangaroos, anything is possible.

photo credit: "guy" 2005

Anyway, that's a long way of saying that Roger Bernadina and the Netherland's World Baseball Classic team plays Australia tonight at 11:30 EST. We'll bring you full coverage of the game and The Shark's performance tomorrow. Until then...stay out of the water. Especially if you are a kangaroo.

More to come.

Honkbal!

Let's Go Dutch! It's what I always say at the start of each date, just to make sure I'm not stuck with the full bill for a romantic night out at McDonald's.

It's also what I've been saying a lot this week as the Dutch baseball team has been playing in the World Baseball Classic. Except, they don't call it baseball. They call it by the much more fun sounding name "Honkbal." While it sounds like it could be a made up game involving geese or bad traffic, according to at least two sources (Alta Vista and Ask Jeeves), Honkbal means baseball. It was brought to the Netherlands in 1911 after some guy saw a game while on vacation in the good old U.S. of A. Ever since then, baseball (Honkbal!) has been...sort of popular in the Netherlands? As you can tell from Bernadina's interview last month they care a lot more about soccer and training glasses and are still confused about how baseball works (So...you're waiting in the outfield...what are you doing during that time?). 

Despite that, baseball is much more popular in Dutch territories of Aruba and the Dutch Antilles (where The Shark is from). There are a lot of good upcoming players from the Netherlands, (like Jonathan Schoop a player in the Orioles farm system) and they actually won the 2011 Baseball World Cup, even without the Shark's help.

image courtesy of natsenquier.com

Now the Dutch Honkbalers are trying to defend their world dominance in the World Baseball Classic and have brought along the player with the World's Best Nickname (according to a survey of three of our friends). They already took a bite out of Korea, but were out honked by Chinese Tapei. Australia is the next stop on their quest to make "Honkbal!" a household name. OK, that probably won't happen, but if they beat Australia they can at least move on to the next round.

From the Sharkives:

Two years ago today: We use new technology to discover the burning flame of victory inside of The Shark.

One year ago today: Tyler discovers someone has photoshopped Bernadina's face over his own and muses on what it would be like to do a Face/Off or Freaky Friday situation with The Shark.

More to come.

Shark vs Chinese Taipai

Yesterday The Shark devoured the Korean team with two RBI's while leading the Netherlands to a 5-0 win in their World Baseball Classic debut. And then, while most of America was sleeping, The Shark battled Chien-Ming Wang's team, Chinese Tapai, early Sunday morning. It didn't go as well as the first game, as the Netherlands Honkbalers lost 8-3 and The Shark went 0-4. Unfortunately, we had already made this image for the game which didn't prove to be true, but maybe happened in an alternate universe or something.

The Netherlands must now win against the team from down under on Monday night to have a chance to advance to the next round of the World Baseball Classic.

More to come.

SHARK VS KOREA

The World Baseball Classic is upon us!

Roger Bernadina is representing Netherlands and his teammates are very excited to have the Shark on their team.  The first team Netherlands faces is Korea.

The Korean team has some strange practices to attempt to tame the Shark.

At the time of this posting, the human sacrifice technique has been less than successful, as the Netherlands lead 5-0 in the 7th inning.  The Shark has a double, an RBI, and a run scored. CHOMP.

UPDATE: The Netherlands beat Korea 5-0.  Roger Bernadina definitely MVP (Most Vicious Predator).

More to come.