It was great for me to see Ken Griffey Jr. back in the groove, launching home runs versus the South African team.  Griffey has reeled off six straight hits in his last six at-bats.  The pool now for Team USA will be facing off against Japan, Korea and Mexico.  Baseball in Japan is much improved since the days of Mr. Baseball (starring a washed up Tom Selleck.)  Japan’s “Evil Empire” has Seattle Mariner superstar Ichiro Suzuki and is managed by Sadaharu Oh, who owns the all-time pro baseball record with 868 home runs.