Let the celebration commence: the last of the at-large Mets are coming home from their baseman’s holiday, a.k.a. the World Baseball Classic. They can get back to being the team they’re paid to be, the one we’ll care about in two weeks when whatever happened in the WBC is tucked away in memory’s recesses for a few more years. Honestly, when I ran across the above pictorial salute to the “Classic” at the All-Star FanFest last summer, I had completely forgotten the first one had ever taken place in 2006.
But no need to be a total curmudgeon about this. While I had no use whatsoever for this tournament at this time of the preseason, and it still offends me that Mets weren’t in Mets camp, I have to applaud our David Wright for looking out for one Mets fan in particular, U.S. Army Sgt. Felix Perez, a kid from New Jersey who was injured in Iraq in ’04. It was noted in the press that Perez was greeted warmly in Miami by Team USA during the WBC semis last week. David made sure Felix continued to feel the warmth in Los Angeles over the weekend. As reported by Christian Red in the Daily News, Wright saw to it that Perez would be at Dodger Stadium for the game against Japan last night, all expenses paid by the Mets’ third baseman. There’s a huge difference between the uniform Perez wore in harm’s way for the United States and the one Wright put on for a few weeks, but David…he’s the kind of guy who makes me proud of my team and my country.
Felix, too.
Anyone get the feeling that story would be front page news if #2 had paid for the flight?
Hey… Number 2! I just got that! Haaa!
Last week I was reved up watching the WBC but somehow before the games began this past weekend my enthusiasm leveled offt and in the early innings of the U.S. game against Japan on Sunday they actually came to a grinding halt.
I think it's because
1) there's now only two weeks to go before opening day whereas I was so hungry for competitive baseball as an alternative to spring training games nearly a month ago when the tournament began,
2) players that were earlier putting out their all seem to be more cautious and guarding against last-minute injuries,
3) seemed like a real rivalry playing the Central and South American teams whereas little is known about all but a few players from Japan and Korea
4) we now don't have anything resembling an all-star team like those other countries,
5) Davey Johnson seemed concerned about getting all his players in the game,
6) turned off with other countries still treating this so seriously while the above indeed made it seem more like an exhibition game.
Funny how feelings can literally change over night as the season approaches.
From the current Onion's sports page:
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Watch Mexico take on Australia in the World Baseball Classic while flipping around to see if anything, absolutely anything else is on.
Yeah, Korea's big first inning on Sat and Japan's big 4th inning last night kinda put a damper on the games. I hear you on the enthusiasm drop-off, and I think it's because once Round 2 ended we knew we were only getting 3 more games, and none of those games guaranteed to be exciting (especially the predictable semis). This is opposed to Rounds 1 and 2 where we got to see 2-3 games per day, with every other day featuring at least one thrilling game.
Tonight's game should be great though, and I can't wait to watch it. Hell, I can't wait for the next WBC in 2013. Unfortunately, this year's tourney raises an important question: Japan and Korea were the most dominant teams in 2006, and now again in 2009. If this repeats in 2013, is there a point to this tournament?
Boo on the constant WBC bashing in this country. WIth my unabashed, totally ignored support for it, I feel like Ira Loenstein in A League of Their Own.
The template for Bud Selig?
I'll admit WBC has been subject to a lot of willful know-nothingism, though I'd like to think mine is an informed willful know-nothingism.
Putting aside my own distaste for the timing and the format and the whole thing, actually, if it stirs interest in other countries, it people really give a darn about it, then sure there's a point to it. It doesn't matter who wins, really. The point is spreading the baseball gospel. I'd take it as more legit if it were teams of players who trained together for an extended period instead of ad hoc conglomerations of whoever happened to be available among big names and those whose grandparents came from Italy. Then, I suppose, it would be the Olympics, at least the ideal version.
Totally agreed on getting rid of Americans playing for other countries due to heritage. That's typically the first thing out of someone's mouth when they want to bash the tournament.
And I certainly hope this tournament did good things for baseball in the Netherlands, Australia, and Italy, all who played well this time around.
and FYI, last night's championship game was phenomenal, on par with USA v Canada, USA v PR, and all of the first round Dutch games. Congratulations to Japan, they certainly earned it. I hope I'm not the only one who stayed up to 1:30a to watch the end (and they wonder why nobody cares in this country).