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Is Baseball Still “Our” Game?
The United States’ roster in the inaugural World Baseball Classic was one that many believed that could only be challenged by the Dominican Republic and possibly Puerto Rico. Yet, despite with players the likes of Roger Clemens, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and other perennial All-Stars, the United States lost in the WBC. Teams like Canada and Mexico, both with MLB talent in their rosters, but glaring holes as well, beat the United States in the event.
Technically, Mexico was supposedly eliminated in the third inning when Jorge Cantu knocked in Mario Valenzuela from second base. (He should have scored earlier anyway as his double was CLEARLY a home run. But I digress.) By the odd tie-breaking rules set up for the Classic, Mexico couldn’t score a run until the 13th inning to keep from being eliminated from the tournament. Yet, when the game was over and Mexico won, they celebrated like they have won the Classic. The team was holding up their flag and running around the stadium like they had won it all, even though they knew they were eliminated. The Mexican team had just removed the United States, the juggernaut team that came from the birthplace of the game.
Is baseball really still “our” game? Major League Baseball is seen as the pinnacle destination of most players due the salaries, the glorious stadiums, and…the salaries. However, there seems to be more love for the game in the Asian and Latin countries. There was a fire in their eyes, a desire to prove that their team, their country was the best. Yet the United States, packed with marvelous players with skill oozing out of their pores, had no fire, no excitement, no hurrah when they struck an opposing batter out, or knocked in a desperately needed run, or hit a mammoth home run. The only real fire that I saw was in Roger Clemens’ actions.
As one analyst once said, the best thing for the World Baseball Classic would be for the United States to lose in the inaugural tournament. Not only does it give the other countries hope and desire to return to the tournament to go for it all, it might just light a fire under the players from the United States. Subliminally, we may have thought that we could somewhat stroll our way through the Classic based on our history and our talent. Now there should be more of a fire, more of a passion to win the game this is born in this country.
But that won’t be for another three years. Fittingly, an American poet wrote words that in a way fit the dire scene that was once our stoic grasp on baseball, “But there is no joy in Mudville…mighty Casey has struck out.”[1]
