No, the U.S. doesn’t need to win the WBC to be “the preeminent baseball country”
Mar 7, 2013, 12:38 PM EDT
Jon Paul Morosi is back on the “The WBC is the Be-All, End-All of Baseball” beat this morning:
Is baseball still America’s game? If so, Team USA needs to win the WBC and prove it. My column: on-msn.com/ZtCv09 @mlbonfox
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 7, 2013
Baseball is America’s pastime. It has become a global game. And WBC results should be accepted as legitimate. No excuses.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 7, 2013
For Americans to say the WBC is not a true measure of international standing is disrespectful to tournament itself and other nations.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) March 7, 2013
He’s right, you know. If the U.S. doesn’t win this thing all of the U.S. players are going to defect to play in Cuba or Japan. Guys here will falsify their ages in order to catch the eye of Dominican scouts. In order to stanch the talent flow Major League teams are going to have to demand posting fees and things. It’s really going to change it all.
Seriously, though: Can we not acknowledge that baseball is an international game, not just a U.S. game (and that it’s not even the number one sport in the U.S.)? And that, yes, it’s quite possible that individual All-Star teams made up of people from other countries may be better than U.S. All-Star teams? And that even if that happens, baseball played in America, by people from all over the world, is still the top of the sport?
I’m not sure what’s so hard about this. I’m not sure why, however much you like the idea of the WBC, you can’t acknowledge that dividing up players by nations, however, interesting, doesn’t say anything meaningful about the state of sport.
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