The first WBC didn’t convince players from the United States that it was a must-participate event. Bowing out in the second round certainly had something to do with that. So did the empty seats in stadiums for Team USA’s games. And the fear – among pitchers especially – that disrupting their standard schedule leading up to opening day is a road flecked with injury mines.
Civic pride for the American players doesn’t exist like in Japan and Cuba and the Dominican, where baseball is a matter of great national import and where a jersey with your country’s name is a gilded shroud. Participation is a must.
Here, it’s a sorta, mighta, maybe. Yes, Team USA already has some solid commitments. Derek Jeter and Chipper Jones return from the first go-around, and Dustin Pedroia, Grady Sizemore, Brian McCann and Ryan Braun are in. The only pitcher thus far is John Lackey, and that, really, illustrates the difference between what Team USA can be and will be.
Imagine a rotation of Sabathia, Halladay, Lincecum and Webb. Fine, replace one of them with Hamels. OK, switch out another for Peavy. Whatever the permutation, it would be the best in the WBC, even with the pitch limits.
Only Team USA is likely 0 for 6 with the six best pitchers. So fingers are crossed that Cliff Lee says yes after his Cy Young season. And that MLB teams don’t reel in Jon Lester or John Danks or Chad Billingsley or Matt Cain because of their young arms. Or that Roy Oswalt and Dan Haren don’t look at what happened to Team USA’s 2006 WBC starters – Peavy’s ERA that year spiked, Dontrelle Willis’ career has never recovered and Roger Clemens was in front of Congress two years later – and run away frightened.
Tripon
Posted: December 22, 2008 at 06:52 PM |
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1. CW hits the pinata for the candy Posted: December 23, 2008 at 12:27 AM (#3036257)Americans don't care much about the WBC because we get the chance to see all our top stars playing all the world's best talent - we call it Major League Baseball. I think there's a real case for making it an old-fashioned barnstorming tour and never playing a game in the US.
I love how he relates this to WBC participation...
Look at the International Events that are remotely popular in America:
The Summer Olympics: Were rapidly decreasing in the American Carescape and had been running basically only because of the Ebersol/Costas machine ever since the end of the Cold War... until this year. Phelps and the USA Basketball team aside, I don't think it's a coincidence that ratings were up for an Olympics where America actually had a rival (China) for the first time since the USSR left the olympics.
Winter Olympics: Greatest moment in American Sports History was the "Miracle on Ice". Why? Because we weren't supposed to win but we did! Other than that, it runs basically as something to hold people over between the end of Football Season and the beginning of March Madness and Spring Training.
Ryder Cup: We used to win every time, then the UK became the EU Team and we started losing all the time. And given the tepid reaction of when the US beat the EU this year, I'm not even sure if we care about this either.
World Cup: Only followed closely by Soccer fans (only casually followed by others). The USA Soccer team is something like the 4th most popular National Soccer/Football team in the USA, by the way.
The Problem the WBC has is that it doesn't have the history to grab attention , the rivalry to grab attention or the "we used to rule now we suck" of the Ryder Cup. What it would take for the WBC to be as big here as in other places would be either A) The US getting knocked out so fast from the tournament that Congress considers holding hearings or B) a loss- in the FINALS- to Cuba (maybe Venezuela, depending on how much of a jackass Hugo Chavez is that week).
Well it's not like the USA doesn't have national pride, we just channel it towards taunting Europeans that we saved their asses in World War II, or towards chest-bumping missions in Iraq. There's a reason Americans are stereotyped in Europe as being incredibly thin-skinned towards any criticism of their country.
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