SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Assistant
The inaugural World Baseball Classic ended Monday with Japan’s victory. Baseball players representing 16 countries fought hard, but the Japanese team won it all. However, one question remains: Why didn’t the United States even make it to the semi-finals? It was not because the Americans didn’t care about this classic, but it was because the rest of the world has caught up to the United States, where baseball was born.
The tournament proved that the rest of the world is playing better than most Americans expected. Almost no one expected Japan and Cuba would match up for the championship and almost every American thought team USA would at least make it to the final before the classic began.
But reality was different.
In the first round, the United States unbelievably lost to neighbor country Canada with a 6-8 final score and barely made it to the second round. After capturing a lucky, 4-3 victory over Japan with the very questionable turnover, team USA lost to Korea and Mexico and had to disappear from the 16-country tournament without being in the top four.
When Japan lost to Korea for the second time during the second round, the United States had a huge chance to step up to the semi-finals with Korea. However, team USA disappeared when it, again, incredibly lost to the other neighboring country, Mexico, 1-2.
It almost looked as if the team USA wanted Japan to go to the semi-finals because those American players probably knew that they didn’t beat Japan fairly. So they might have given it away. Or maybe not.
During the second round, Japan lost an important game against the United States with a ludicrous call by an American umpire, but was also saved by America’s loss to Mexico.
After getting a little help from the United States, Japan never let this opportunity go away and captured the first WBC title in history.
Despite the team USA’s quick dismissal in the tournament, many Americans may still believe their country is the best at baseball. They want to believe that their team didn’t have the best players and, most of all, didn’t play at 100 percent for this non-major-league event. Unfortunately, that is wrong for the following reasons.
First, team USA had some of the nation’s best players including: the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon; the Cincinnati Reds’ Ken Griffey Jr.; former Houston Astro Roger Clemens; and the San Diego Padres’ Jake Peavy.
Second, if the American players didn’t care too much about this, why would they even participate in this? In other words, for those who were playing for their countries were, without a doubt, playing their best in this world championship.
The winning country, Japan, may have not had its best players since only two out of 15 major league baseball players, Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki and Texas’ Aki Otsuka, participated.
Some Americans might still think that the United States is better because it beat Japan in the second round?
Nope.
If that victory could prove that team USA is better than the team Japan, that’s because the home umpire, who is American, really wanted his country to win. Without his help, the United States could have lost to Japan and finished the second round with a 0-3 record.
For these reasons, Americans shouldn’t think that their country is still far best in baseball. This year’s WBC just proved that the rest of the world is as good as the mother country of baseball.
If Americans really want to prove that they are the best at baseball, they need to come up with the best possible “dream team” and win the WBC II.
If they can’t come up with the best possible team, that’s because many major league teams don’t want their players to get hurt before the season.
But they should play baseball for their country, it’s more important than any city. Why won’t those team owners let them play?
Actually, if they want their players to play well during the season, they should let them play in the WBC.
The reasons are simple: it’s more competitive and more fun than the boring spring training.
03-23-2006