Another Hall of Famer caught on video: the Say-Hey Kid, Willie Mays.

Mays threw out the first pitch at the USA-South Africa game. Willie came into Scottsdale Stadium with his godson, Barry Bonds. The least said about Barry at this moment, the better. I am reeling from the SI story. I worked for the newspaper company that employs the reporters who wrote the story; I assure you, the story must be true.

Here’s a look at the players on the South Africa team. They lost all three games, but were competitive and came close to upsetting Canada. I head that 11 of the players were high schoolers which makes their achievement that much more impressive. Sitting near a number of major league scouts, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a few wind up in some major league camps at some point.

All told, they were good sports and always played hard with their heads held high; they were a credit to their country.

Because the USA blowout of South Africa lasted only five innings, many of the US pitchers didn’t get in the game, leaving them to work out after the dust had settled after the 17-0 victory.

Of course we had to capture Huston Street loosening up in the bullpen after the game. As we have chronicled on this blog, he is a favorite since his days in the Arizona Fall League all the way through his Rookie of the Year season with the Oakland A’s.

After seeing the USA slaughter South Africa, we made our way along the 101 Freeway to the Peoria Sports Complex (Spring Training home of the Padres and Mariners) to see Korea, the winner of the Asia Pool, take on the Padres in an exhibition game.

It was cold and windy, and after eight games in six days, we lasted six innings. It was 4-0 Padres when we left and the final was 7-1.

Korea is a very fundamentally solid team, but not quite at the level of teams such as the US and Mexico, but on any given day, anything can happen. Just ask the US team after they were defeated by Canada.

It’s too soon to predict the outcome of the Korea-Japan-US-Mexico pool but it’s not going to be a caekwalk of any sort for the USA team.