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USA TV Talk Sports with Justin Mazzarese
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Lack of Participation Could Doom America in WBC
Justin Mazzarese
Sports Editor
With the Winter Olympics in full swing and America fielding what has been dubbed by the media, �The Best American Team Ever,� you would think that the baseball world would learn a lesson from the winter team about fielding the best of the best. But in typical baseball fashion they turn the other cheek and will deal with the consequences later.
The up-coming World Baseball Classic will pit the best of the best from sixteen countries in a group stage tournament. Some participants include Japan, Australia, Dominican Republic and Cuba. Each team will represent their country and the winner will have the obvious bragging rights. While the rest of world takes this tournament seriously and knows what�s at stake, some American Major League players decided that they will not be representing the United States.
Sadly it seems that USA baseball will be taking the same rout that their basketball counterparts took at the 2002 Summer Games. That year, USA basketball did not field the best team because many NBA stars did not want to play. That team finished with a bronze medal, the worst performance by a U.S. team since professionals became eligible for Olympic play. A similar fate could be in store for the United States at the World Baseball Classic.
At best, the USA baseball team resembles 1998 all-star team with names like Ken Griffey Jr., Luis Gonzalez and Al Lieter on the roster. Not to take anything away from those players storied careers, teams like the Dominican Republic are taking a much different approach to the tournament.
The D.R., for example, will send three of the last four Major League Most Valuable Player award winners to the Classic in Vladimir Guerrero, Albert Pujols and Miguel Tejada. Facing those three alone would strike fear in any major league pitcher. Unfortunately for the other teams, those three only represent the tip of the Dominican talent iceberg. Lets look a little deeper into there line-up.
Along with those MVP�s, the Dominican is offering this generations� combination of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig: they have Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. To compliment this monstrosity of line up is an abundant supply of leadoff hitters in Luis Castillo, Juan Uribe and Julio Lugo. They also showcase two of the best short-stops in the league in Rafeal Furcal and Jose Reyes. Throw Alfonso Soriano into the mix and you have, potentially, the best array of talent ever displayed in baseball competition at any level.
But can they pitch? You tell me.
At the top of the pitching rotation is one of this generation�s best pitchers: Pedro Martinez. Along with Martinez will be last year�s Cy Young award-winner Bartolo Colon. The pitching does thin out, but not drastically, with credible names like Miguel Batista and Armando Benitez.
One cannot to completely disregard America�s team as it does possess some great talents. Brad Lidge, Roger Clemens, C.C. Sabathia and Andy Petitte will be the standout pitching while Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones will anchor the veteran lineup.
If talent alone does not separate the Dominican from the American team, attitude surely will. Even though we love the game in America, the Caribbean has even more passion for the game; their baseball games would rival our football and college basketball games.
�We want to be there. We love the game of baseball. Back home you see kids playing with no shoes and having rocks be bases,� a Cuban man told me in a bar one night.
In Cuba, the biggest prize for the country is winning the Olympics in baseball which they won gold medals in 1992, 1996 and 2004. I am sure Cuba is constantly reminded that the United States did not field there best teams those years. With that and the fact that they were almost not let in the games could only be an added incentive for Cuba to win the tournament.
Another contender from the Caribbean will be Venezuela, who just won the Caribbean Series, a four- team tournament that also featured Mexico, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. This tournament served as an under card to the WBC and Venezuela celebrated like they just won the World Series.
People have always questioned why the World Series is called the World Series if no one else but America partakes in it. The rest of the world is preparing for this tournament as if it was the World Series. America will have to deal with the consequences of losing tournament in a sport we call our national pastime.
Copyright 2006 Justin Mazzarese. All Rights Reserved.
Reprint without permission is prohibited.
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