own -- and I think that could help bridge the gap between where the announcers are and where they could be going forward

NEW YORK -- Liam Carroll probably couldnt have picked a better location for the biggest games of his coaching career.As manager of the team representing Great Britain at this weeks World Baseball Classic qualifier, Carroll and his 28-man roster have their sights set on earning the final berth in next years 16-team WBC field. It would easily qualify as the biggest moment in the history of the British baseball program, and the fact that the event is being contested at MCU Stadium in Brooklyn carries personal significance for Carroll.My dad is from New York and grew up a hardcore Brooklyn Dodgers fan, Carroll said. Jackie Robinson is his idol.A statue of Robinson and Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese stands at the entrance to MCU Stadium, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league team.That said, Carrolls mother is English and he was born and raised in London. He wants nothing more than for his players to figuratively plant the Union Jack flag here in Brooklyn by earning their first trip to the WBC.Theyre thrilled to be here and very excited for the opportunity, Carroll said.Great Britain is vying against Brazil, Israel and Pakistan for the final berth in the 16-team field for the 2017 WBC. The winner advances to face South Korea, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands in pool play next March in Seoul.The hope around the Great Britain program is that victory in Brooklyn will raise awareness of baseball back home and push it closer to the mainstream. It wont be easy. Israel has several players with major league experience, and Brazil qualified for the 2013 WBC.Great Britain went 1-2 at its first WBC qualifier in September 2012. The Brits have a deeper talent pool and are better prepared this time around, and Carroll believes his team is ready to take the next step.The British national team is coming off a disappointing ninth-place finish at the 2016 European Baseball Championship. But WBC eligibility rules, which are established by Major League Baseball, are more flexible than those for the national team. Because of that, the roster has been bolstered by American and Bahamian players with parental connections to Britain.Four players from the British national club champion Southampton Mustangs are on the WBC qualifier roster -- pitchers Jordan Edmonds, Spencer Kreisberg, Rei Martinez and third baseman Maikel Azcuy. Martinez and Azcuy are Cuban natives who emigrated to England. Great Britain has 11 team members who played on MLB-affiliated teams this season, including three Triple-A players: catcher Chris Berset and pitchers Chris Reed and Michael Roth.Roth is a native of Greenville, South Carolina, but qualifies because his mother is a native of Kettering, England. His maternal grandparents both served in the Royal Air Force. Roth pitched for two College World Series champions at the University of South Carolina and was a member of the Great Britain team at the 2012 WBC qualifier in Germany. This time around, hes better prepared. He has four more years of professional experience under his belt, including major league service time with the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers.This is probably [going to be the] smallest crowd that Ive played in front of this year, Roth said. That helps because when you get up here, whether theyre yelling or screaming at you -- like they were when I was at Fenway this year -- you just really focus on the catcher. Youre trying to execute pitches. Youre going out there and competing, and its really between you and the batter.Great Britain was planning to use pitcher Jacob Esch in the Brooklyn qualifier, but that changed when the right-hander was promoted from Triple-A to the Miami Marlins. Esch is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended Georgia Tech, but his mother is an England native from St Austell, Cornwall.Wed love to have him here, but its huge for our program to have a British passport holder in the big leagues, Carroll said.One British player owes a footnote to New York baseball history. Bahamian-born outfielder Antoan Richardson scored the winning run for the Yankees when Derek Jeter delivered a walk-off hit in the final home game of his career on Sept. 25, 2014.Carrolls team preaches the adage of playing the game the GB way and focusing on three tenets -- inspire, develop and perform. One of the players who best embodies this belief is second baseman Richard Klijn. He grew up in the village of Cark in northwest England and began playing baseball at age 6. He has dyslexia, and baseball often provided refuge from frustrations at school. Baseball equipment was difficult to come by and proper playing fields were unheard of, but he stuck with the sport and eventually fell in love with it.By age 16, Klijn was in camp with the Great Britain national team. At 17, he left to play in the top baseball league in Germany. He won five Bundesliga championships with Regensburg Legionaere before joining the Haar Disciples club in suburban Munich in 2015. Now 26, he badly wants to help Great Britain advance to the WBC.I think weve done a good job of getting everyone together real fast and getting everyone to know each other, Klijn said. Were confident, and were feeling very good right now. I think weve got a great chance against all three teams.Great Britain has also tapped one of the top relief pitchers in baseball history to be its bullpen coach. Longtime San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman, who ranks second in MLB history with 601 career saves, was brought on staff through his association with Great Britain assistant coach Brad Marcelino. Hoffmans mother is an England native from Southend-on-Sea, and his maternal grandfather was a footballer at Southend United.My mom is getting up there in age, and I think she would appreciate seeing her homeland represented by the family, Hoffman said.Carroll and Marcelino, meanwhile, are the threads that link Great Britains baseball past to its present.Marcelino was born in Essex and lived in London as a child. He played in three different decades as an outfielder for Great Britain, debuting in 1999 and culminating with the 2012 WBC qualifier. In between, he was a member of the 2007 British team that won silver at the European championships. Marcelinos father, Oscar, played for Great Britain in the 1980s and later coached in the program as well.Carroll joined the national program as an infielder in 1996 and began working his way up the coaching ladder starting in 2004. He also played for Oscar Marcelino at Porterville College in California for two seasons.Brad Marcelino has witnessed amazing growth in British baseball since the days when his father played. Today, more than 20,000 Britons participate in baseball and softball, and the structure of the national team and development program has been firmly cemented.Light years [apart], a complete 180, Marcelino said in contrasting the two eras. To now have the public see that theres a program on an international stage is tremendous.NFL Jerseys . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. NHL Jerseys . Spiller left Week 3s 27-20 loss to the New York Jets with a thigh injury, but fully practiced with the team all week and expects to be ready to go on Sunday. https://www.cheapjerseysjustwholesale.com/ . Arsenal failed to take full advantage of its main rivals stumbles on Saturday as substitute Gerard Deulofeu levelled with a hard shot from a tight angle in the 84th minute to give Everton a deserved point. Ahead of a crucial fortnight that will see them play against Napoli in the Champions League, Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal leads by five points ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea. Authentic Jerseys . McPhee said that Ovechkins father Mikhail is in stable condition after having the surgery this week and is no longer in intensive care. "Weve told him to stay as long as necessary with your dad," he said. Ovechkin and his Russian national team were eliminated from the mens hockey tournament in Sochi on Wednesday with a 3-1 quarter-final loss to Finland. Cheap Jerseys . The defending champion beat Gael Monfils of France 7-6 (6), 6-3, while second-seeded Andy Murray of Britain dispatched Edouard Roger-Vasselin, also of France, 6-3, 6-3. Making his first appearance since injuring his wrist a month ago, Del Potro had difficulty with his service games in the first set.Coming off the thrill ride of an episode that was this weeks Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live had a lot to live up to in following that up. When the episode opened with the full promo from The Mizs appearance on last weeks episode of Talking Smack -- an appearance that drew considerable buzz from the fans -- the tone was set for a strong reply to Raws big statement of a finale.It sadly couldnt live up to that hype, with the episode instead getting tied down by one problem in particular that caused many of the issues that plagued both of WWEs shows in the pre-draft era -- an unquenchable desire to take excitement and buzz thats organic and fan-driven and synthesize it into an asset that simply augments plans they already had.Things didnt immediately go off the rails, however. Shane McMahon immediately demanded that Daniel Bryan needed to apologize to The Miz, and Bryan responded with a somewhat snarky reply that hed try to be a little less honest next time around. Combined with Bryans retort, in which he stated it was a little ironic coming from the guy who has issues with Brock Lesnar, there were a lot of things going in the shows favor. There was genuine conflict for the first time between SmackDowns general manager and commissioner -- during which we were subtly reminded of the conflict between McMahon and Lesnar -- and there was a sense that wed almost certainly get more from Bryan as the night rolled along.After SmackDowns title sequence ended, the Miz came out to the loudest reaction hes gotten in years without a proper foil next to him to drive that kind of hatred. He quickly demanded his music be cut and the vibe got very serious. Dont boo me, he said, further amping up the crowd. One hundred and forty-eight days is what it took to get all of your attention?The Miz really started rolling with another strong promo in the middle of the ring, pointing over and over to the fact that hes the go-to guy for the WWE, for everything from interviews, to TV appearance, to movies to red carpets to commercials and beyond -- and most importantly, that his so-called safe and cowardly style has allowed him to do that over his entire career without interruption.He turned it around by calling the crowd a bunch of cowards for supporting guys like Bryan just because the first 10 or 12 years of their careers happened in VFW halls. He had the crowd whipped into a frenzy when Dolph Zigglers music hit.What followed was five minutes that were the true personification of letting the air out of a balloon. Ziggler reiterated several of Bryans points from last week, and even added a few of his own -- accusing Miz of simply wanting the title so that he could be famous, but he kept leaning on calling Miz a coward.By no real fault of either Miz or Ziggler, the segment quickly lost its steam, despite some coward chants from the Dallas-faithful and a truly crazy look in Mizs eyes as Maryse backed him away from the confrontation.This sequence sorely lacked because of Bryans absence. By attempting to take the excitement that came together organically with the Miz-Bryan showdown and crafting it into an excuse for another in a fairly long line of Miz-Ziggler showdowns for the Intercontinental championship, they seem to have diluted the effect rather quickly.That could change again in a heartbeat with the right decision, or by finding a way to involve Bryan more directly into the conflict without him being able to get into the ring. But considering the level of excitement that Mizs Talking Smack promo generated, and how directly they dealt with it in the opening of this episode of SmackDown, the direction they chose to go in within the first 10 minutes of this episode was a bit much to stomach.Once Talking Smack rolled around, some light was shed on the decisions that WWE brass had made as it became clear that there might not be much, if any, future at all between The Miz and SmackDowns GM.He pressed all those buttons -- he knows how to press them, said Bryan of The Miz. Which is why theyre not letting us do anything on TV together anymore. Theyre like Bryan, Miz -- you guys are done.#SDLive GM @WWEDanielBryan explains his actions last week on #TalkingSmack on @WWENetwork. @MikeTheMiz pic.twitter.com/SCHtPk2g3o- WWE (@WWE) August 31, 2016In the meantime, well see if Bryan has anything else to say when he appears on SportsCenter on Wednesday with Jonathan Coachman during his Off the Top Rope segment.A.J. Styles is getting better by the week. He was in his element acting like a goofball backstage, but proved he can snap back into seriousness in a heartbeat as well. Styles even helped Apollo Crews seem more relevant in less than 30 seconds than even a brief feud with The Miz over the Intercontinental Championship could make him.Having Crews challenge Styles gives him a showcase to do some of his best work, and it makes Styles look sharp in the ring with another guy who makes a habit of making the guy hes working with look a whole lot better. Crews got in most of the offense during the match, with Styles pulling off a three-move combination leading up to a Phenomenal forearm in short succession to pick up the victory. This is a great example of putting meaning into a match thats put together the same night -- a quick, compelling backstage segment, a confrontation, then a good 10-minute match that helped both guys.The main event match between Dean Ambrose and Baron Corbin, on the other hand, seemed to do the exact opposite. Taking a guy like Corbin, whoos barely been in the ring over the last couple of months and only appearing in brief backstage segments, and making him look stronger than your top champion for most of a match seems counter-productive just over a week out from Backlash, SmackDown Lives first brand-specific pay-per-view.ddddddddddddIf youre saying theres very little difference between the two aforementioned matches, theres at least some merit to the argument, at least on the surface. But Crews has been in the ring and fighting for championships and simply lacking the right circumstance to become more relevant, while Corbin has largely floundered since both he and Crews were part of a four-way match to determine the No. 1 contender for the Intercontinental championship. Finally, Corbin is still a ways away from being a main event competitor within the ropes despite some strong showings in both WWE and NXT; Crews issues lie in finding his character and connection with the fans, whereas hes entertaining and polished in the ring.The showdown between Ambrose and Styles, who was ringside for the main event, predictably boiled over at the tail end of the match, which actually used Corbin well. The show ending with Styles stuck uncomfortably straddling the ropes for way too long diminished the rebound of interest between Styles and Ambrose a bit, but with the path both guys have been on since SummerSlam and the uncertainty of the result, Im confident the go-home episode of SmackDown Live will deliver, as far as these two go.Hits and missesIf the Headbangers coming in is the next in an ongoing line of emeritus tag teams being brought in for stretches to help younger talent, you can sign me up. Tag team wrestling provides the right kind of environment for nostalgia without taking away too much from the in-ring project -- and being in there with the right new or up-and-coming teams can be beneficial to the long-term health of the tag team division. All that being said, the crowd didnt have much to offer as far as a reaction to the one-time tag champs took on Heath Slater and Rhyno. The gore to pick up the victory for his team was unsurprising, but the Heaths Kids section in the crowd lifting up their signs at the conclusion of the match was a nice touch and a nod to just how much the fans have gotten behind Slater in recent weeks.Ive enjoyed the continued effort to spotlight Slater myself, but Renee Youngs visit to his trailer seemed like a bit of a misstep. With the way that Slaters segments had gone previously, it felt like the creative choice would be for Slater to hire an actress to portray his wife in order to cover up the ever-growing list of lies he was telling to try to drum up sympathy in his pursuit of a contract. I could still be surprised, but with the way things played out, it didnt quite feel right, as genuine sympathy is not really what has driven the support for Slater; its more about his mouth getting him into trouble over and over again and Slater not being able to get out of his own way. The crowd is certainly getting behind him either way, and his story and where its going is a big reason to keep tuning in.The exchange between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton was effective and compelling. Just as Styles seems to bring the best out of people inside the ring, Wyatts gift is his ability to elevate the psychological build to matches outside of it. Orton has done a lot of speaking with his actions, to great effect, but to hear him talk about his scars, external and internal alike, felt real and on-point. Wyatt was his usual masterful self in helping to create a narrative for a match, but each of these guys seems as if they could really use a big win. It remains to be seen how this rivalry might carry on effectively past Backlash, but for now, Im in.JBL took a definitive step backward this week. I was and still am hopeful that SmackDowns announcing team can pull it together, but he stepped on a couple of moments that didnt really require his interjection; most specifically, the end of Wyatts entrance. Mauro Ranallo was doing great work before the shift in announcer assignments, but I fear having his momentum or trains of thought stepped on one too many times by JBL could continue to highlight the SmackDown Live teams issues with getting on the same page. On the plus side, there was a concerted effort from David Otunga stepping up and making his presence known -- and I think that could help bridge the gap between where the announcers are and where they could be going forward if its done right.The womens tag team match was a little bit longer than it had to be if the ultimate goal was to end the match with a distraction in the end. It was another good step in making Carmella a contemptible figure, but these attacks eventually have to lead to something more than just having Nikki Bella laid out for a few minutes.It was a good, if brief, showing from The Hype Bros in their victory in the tag team title tournament, but my goodness, how far have The Vaudevillians fallen since their main roster debuts? Theyve gone from challenging for the top tag titles shortly after WrestleMania to, just a few months later, being mere fodder for the rest of SmackDown Lives tag team division.I dont even know where to begin to discuss Gary The Milkman Millman, so Im just going to say that bringing Kane back could and should have been a bigger deal. ' ' '