Mark's Thoughts: National Pride for Sports - Has the USA forgotten true national sports pride?

A change has occurred with USA fans and players, and it isn't a great thing...

I was watching the finals of the World Baseball Classic and was thinking about a lot of different things. Will this competition survive, although there is little support in the US to keep it going? Is the game of the South East Asian (small ball) better than the the game we see in the major leagues? Will Bum Ho Lee become a house hold name due to his clutch hit in the ninth inning of the WBC Finals? (Seriously, Bum Ho Lee joins my list of names that should be a FCC violation, right up there with Fukudome.) Yet, the question that kept going through my head was; how did we as US fans become so negative?

During the semi-final game between the US and Japan it was interesting to watch the US fans at Dodger stadium. It appeared that the fans had the same feelings that I did while watching the game. How in the crap is the US team losing to the Japanese? This is an embarrassment to be watching the US team come up short again. Why was I feeling this way about the US team? Frankly, because the US team is the team that is least like a team in the tournament.

Sure team USA put it together against the Puerto Rico team, and they were able to survive and continue. They dog-piled on top of David Wright and said all of the right things after the game was over about how proud they were to represent the country. Then after the game the team unity started to go away. The players with minor injuries went back to their teams and left an already shorthanded USA team in an even tougher position. It would have be great for the US team to call down another of their talented players to take the place of the injured, but most players already turned down the request to play for the national team. Why? They were afraid that they might injure themselves or that they just didn't want to give the effort to play that competitive of baseball at this time of year. Those players don't care about national pride, but really just care about themselves. That is the problem with the US teams in international play.

Seeing a US team, an all-star team, a team that really deep down just treats the tournament like another exhibition, really will never truly succeed on the international stage. Playing for your country means something to every other player on the other international squads. This emotion could be seen by the players for both Korea and Japan yesterday. The players that were willing to risk putting their full effort out there, even in the face of perhaps injuring themselves, for the honor of their country. The emotions that the Japanese players had after the victory, and the evident emotions on the faces of the Korean players as they glared from the dugout after the game proved that they were playing for their country. The biggest difference of all came after the game. Japan coming together, jumping up and down, throwing their manager into the air, and most importantly, turning down the pre-made T-shirts and hats that the US staff were trying to hand out to the players.

The Japanese players weren't playing for their own glory, they didn't want to put on the fake T-shirts and hats, and spray each other with champagne to prove how great of players they were and to bask in their own greatness. No they wanted to keep their uniforms on, because those were the uniforms that they were representing the entire tournament. Team Japan was playing for the Japanese, and not for themselves. This mentality was rewarded by the fans in the stadium, and by those thousands gathered together for both teams in their own country.

That is the mentality that is missing from both the US players and the fans of the US national team. Call is arrogance, or capitalism, or lack of patriotism, but something is missing from the US fans and players. Not all fans are like this, and I wouldn't want to put all the players from Team USA in the same category; however, there is a difference and it is making less of our fans and players to lose what the Japanese and Koreans have in bulk. Even if their fall in defeat. National Pride!

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The Wife's Outburst: 3D Live Baseball cards

I saw of the future of baseball cards, and I don't know if I like it...

Today at school when I was watching Channel One (how many of you remember "watching" Channel One in junior high and high school?) and they did a story about the next generation of baseball cards.

When you get a 3D baseball card in a pack of Topps baseball cards, you log-on to their website, put it up to your webcam, and it comes alive. "You can take batting practice, pitch, and even play catch all right on your desktop using your keyboard" (www.channelone.com).

But is this really the next big thing? Come one. You can do this right now with the many baseball video games out there. You don't need a baseball card to play baseball with your favorite player. Just pop MLB 2K9 into the Playstation and there you go. You can do batting practice, pitch, and play catch...and even play a game or two with your favorite player and you don't even need a webcam to do it.

What do you think? Are 3D Live baseball cards the next generation of baseball cards? Or are old fashion paper ones here to stay?

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Mark's Thoughts: World Baseball Classic - Just Awesome

If anyone questioned how good this tournament is, then you needed to see the USA vs Puerto Rico game...

I have already written about how pumped up I was for another World Baseball Classic, but I can't believe how much fun I have been having watching top notch baseball in March. There is something very interesting about how determined all of the players are in each game.

Especially after the comeback 6-5 victory of the USA over Puerto Rico. The drama was there throughout the entire game. Shane Victorino tried, successfully, to run into a cut off throw and take a base. Carlos Beltran stole a home run from Adam Dunn, and then hit a two-run shot himself. David Wright was mobbed by teammates after hitting the game winning double, and "The New York Mets star called the hit the biggest of his career. 'You're talking about representing the United States of America,' he said. 'You've got that across the front of your chest. To be able to get that hit, that's got to be right up there at the top of the list'"(espn.com).

If that isn't showcasing what is the best things about the game of baseball, then there might not be hope for international baseball to be appealing to the U.S. audience. The Puerto Rico game, before the ninth inning comeback, was one of the most intense and better games I have seen for quite some time.

What makes this tournament even better is the fact that I was flipping through channels and stopped on the Cuba vs. Mexico game the previous night. After about five minutes I was hooked. Though not a sell out crowd by any means the Mexican supporters at Petco field in San Diego were loud and fun. The baseball was very good, the pitching was great for March, and the passion was visible as both teams played to save being eliminated from the tournament.

The Dutch being able to beat the mighty Dominican Republic, not once but twice, was also inspiring. The Netherlands really put together two impressive outings against a stacked lineup from the Dominican Republic. The Dominicans after being eliminated called their performance a national embarrassment, and they weren't really stretching the truth about the national (Dominican) opinion of their performance!

Sure there has been injuries, and there are still some problems with the format. (How is it far that Puerto Rico beats the US by the mercy rule on Saturday, then loses to Venezuela in a close game, and then has to beat the US again or be eliminated? All the US had to do was beat the Netherlands and then rematch Puerto Rico and they advanced.) Yet, there has been opportunities to see great talent that Major League Fans wouldn't have a chance to see for a few years. The pitching by both the Koreans and Japanese teams is upper level Major leagues, and must have pro scouts drolling over the chance to bring an Asian ace over that could win twenty games in the major leagues.

The problems will be fixed, but the current product isn't that bad to watch. The WBC has had me cheering many times already, and should just get better as the games head to Los Angeles.

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Mark's Thoughts: The World Baseball Classic is Here Again

What is not to like about the WBC?

Three years ago baseball started a great experiment. A World Cup style format to showcase the global interest in their game. The result was a success. The tournament had better than expected ratings. The teams were well represented (not including Italy which was a joke four years ago). The players seemed to enjoy representing their countries, and the atmosphere for the games were electric in some cases in 2006. The World Baseball Classic takes everything that is great about the FIFA World Cup and makes it better. The WBC does this by playing a superior sport. If the WBC is managed correctly, then the WBC could be an international event in the coming years that the world would celebrate.

The one great argument that opponents of the WBC constantly use is the affect of playing in the WBC has on players performances for their MLB teams, especially how the WBC affects pitchers and their performances. What is the difference between the players training and playing with their MLB teams for spring training or practicing and playing for their country during the same time as spring training? The biggest difference might be that the players who train for their countries will come into the season in better shape compared to the players that went to spring training. Is there a greater chance of injury for players playing in the WBC compared to meaningless spring training games? NO! The players have the same chance of injury in either venue, and both teams have a staff of doctors that wouldn't want to risk the future of the players by overplaying them.

Early March is a great time to hold the tournament. There is a dead zone in sports at the present moment. March Madness is right around the corner, but the end of the season is dragging to a close before conference tournaments. Opening day is still a month away. Then baseball is only intense for the first month before teams settle in for the long marathon season. The intensity only returns during the latter part of the pennant race. To have intense competitive baseball played in the dog days of March is just great timing.

Baseball fans can also follow the drama of who will represent which country in the tournament. The social and political pressure used by certain countries to get their players to play. There is also the insane pressure placed on team USA to not only win the tournament, but with the tournament convincingly! If the USA enters any baseball tournament second place is a huge failure.

Could the teams be better? Sure, a lot of the bigger names in baseball decided not to play this year. Yet, the baseball that was played three years ago was pure, intense and fun. If you missed watching the WBC three years ago, then be sure to watch in this year.

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