College Times

Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: Blogs

Media Credit: Hector Gabino

There's no "I" in USA.

There's no "try," either.

For the second straight World Baseball Classic, in an event created by Americans, played primarily in America, marketed mostly to Americans, the United States' squad didn't even sniff the final round.

The Classic is the brainchild of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and in a perfect world, would serve as a true measure of international competition (not to mention a strong push to pass basketball as the world's second most popular sport, behind soccer).

But, for the second straight year, and as most of Selig's decisions go, it didn't turn out that way. At all.

Team USA made it to the semi-finals, but only in part because of the tournament's wonky formatting. The team actually only went 4-4, including embarrassing drubbings at the hands of Puerto Rico (11 to 1), Venezuela (10-6) and eventual champion Japan (9-4).

Meanwhile, Japan and Korea faced off in the championship game in Dodger Stadium, a thrilling 5-3 10-inning affair that saw Japanese superstar Ichiro Suzuki play the role of national hero.

Japan only fielded five major leaguers on its 28-man roster. South Korea's roster had one.

That's six big leaguers under the bright lights in the entire championship game. Compare that to Team USA, who ran a major leaguer out there in every position, both batters and pitchers.

That's not to knock the Asian leagues and their homegrown stars, nor to imply that all of the US's players are All-Stars. In fact, that's part of the problem.

Joe Mauer, Lance Berkman, Tim Lincecum, Roy Halladay, Joe Nathan: all are US superstars, none participated. Chris Iannetta, Curtis Granderson, Latroy Hawkins, Joel Hanrahan; all decidedly average players who did.

Injuries (and the inherent risk of them) played a factor in some selections, to be sure, as did player indifference. Both are legitimate threats to US success, but neither is the main culprit.

For a league that thrives on international attention, casts scouts the world over to seek out the "next Albert Pujols," and has seen an astounding influx of foreign talent from every continent over the last 15 years, it's amazing that major league owners really don't seem to give a damn.

Owners are too sheepish (or too smart) to come out and outright ban players from playing in the Classic, but behind closed doors, there are most certainly near-ultimatums. Players are seen by owners as selfish for risking their health to represent their countries in international play, the exact opposite sentiment that the games are there to establish. To owners, it's more a matter of financial security than national pride.

Perhaps I'm missing the mark, here. The same thing happened to major league-heavy Dominican, Venezuelan and Puerto Rican teams; all exited earlier than expected. Hell, the Dominicans (A-Rod, Big Papi, Pedro, et al) lost to the Netherlands twice and failed to make it out of the first round.

And maybe this year's all-Asian final (Japan and Korea both reached the semi-finals in '06, too) is just evidence that America's pastime is now the world's future, that we can't be expected to win everything. The championship game was thrilling, even if the only red white and blue was a sea of Japanese and Korean flags in the crowd.

But then I take a look at Latroy Hawkins' career numbers, and it's hard to come to any other conclusion. At the risk of sounding American-centric, if Team USA doesn't start caring about the World Baseball Classic, there won't be any Classic to care about.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools