SAY IT AIN'T SO, OH:

Americans Tag Japan With Loss: United States 4, Japan 3 (Dave Sheinin, 3/13/06, Washington Post)

From a certain spot at the top step of the U.S. team's dugout Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium, the third base bag was perhaps 30 feet away, with the expanse of left field in the background, green and full of shadows. It was here, in the eighth inning of the opening game of the second round of the World Baseball Classic, where perhaps a dozen U.S. players stood nervously and watched Japan's Tsuyoshi Nishioka -- representing the go-ahead run -- tag up from third base while, in the background, left fielder Randy Winn circled around to catch a lazy fly ball.

What happened next before 32,896 fans would create the first on-field controversy of the WBC, leaving the dignified manager of the Japanese team, legendary slugger Sadaharu Oh, in a simmering rage and tainting the outcome of a 4-3 victory by the U.S. team, achieved when designated hitter Alex Rodriguez drove in the winning run with a broken-bat single up the middle in the bottom of the ninth.

"It's just unimaginable," Oh said of the reversed call by the umpiring crew, "that this could have happened."