Team USA Hands Japan Their First Loss Of The Tournament To Advance To Their First WBC Championship Game
The only thing that has sucked about these games have been their start times. Other than that, they’ve certainly lived up to the hype. We had Puerto Rico walking off against the Netherlands in 11 innings in the first semi-final on Monday night, and then last night we had a nail-biter with USA squeaking by Japan 2-1, handing them their first and what will be their only loss of the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Remember when MLB first created that stupid rule that had the winner of the All Star Game getting home field advantage in the World Series, and they went with the “This time, it counts!” slogan to promote it and get fans excited? Sure, it counted. But I honestly don’t think that it enhanced any passion or entertainment value in the game itself. You had players going to the All Star Game from shitty teams that were 15 games out of first place at the break — what do they care about home field advantage in the World Series? Same thing goes for the fans of those teams.
When the World Baseball Classic was first created, I thought it was an incredible concept. Baseball had been voted out of the Olympics in 2005, so the sport decided to branch off and do their own thing. It was great. But after that first tournament in 2006, I think it lost its shine quite a bit. The novelty of the WBC had worn off, and there had to be other reasons why fans would tune in to watch every time that it came around.
Of course, I really only see this as an issue in the United States. Drawing fan interest and luring top talent to play for their respective country hasn’t been a problem for countries like, say, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Venezuela, etc. AKA the other heavyweights in this tournament. America invented baseball; you’d think the best players in the country would have a little more pride and willingness to wear “USA” across their chest and the stars and stripes on their sleeve. That was my main gripe with the tournament, at least from a US baseball fan’s perspective.
And that’s obviously the only perspective that I can speak from, but this is really the first time that I’ve felt like the WBC games have been played with the same effort, passion and emotion as World Series games by Team USA. It’s so noticeable, and that’s really what’s grabbed me and pulled me in this year. It also doesn’t hurt that USA has gone all the way to the championship game, but had they lost to Japan, this is still something I would’ve pointed out. That’s the only way this tournament flourishes and serves its purpose, which is to grow the game of baseball on a global scale. The players have to care, and these games have to matter to them. A lot.
After watching this year’s WBC, it’s very, very clear that this USA team cares quite a bit, and these games matter to them a lot. “Unfinished business,” is what Adam Jones called it after beating Japan last night.
PS — Fire up the t-shirt machine for “United We Grind” shirts if USA beats Puerto Rico for the WBC title tonight.