Stars give WBC a chance-so should you

Two weeks ago, Derek Jeter took 25 of his friends out to dinner at an expensive restaurant in Toronto. No, this was not a Jeter family reunion or a bachelor party for Alex Rodriguez. In fact, as the captain of the USA baseball team, Jeter picked up the tab for all of his teammates the night before the 2009 World Baseball Classic began.

For those of you who remain unaware, the WBC is an international baseball competition that features 16 teams and is played every three years. If you haven’t heard of the WBC, it may be because you’re geared up for the new MLB season or because you’re preoccupied with the March Madness Tournament. But it’s more likely that, like most American citizens, you just don’t care. But here’s why you should.

While the WBC should really take place in February (see my column from Feb. 11), the tournament starts in early March and provides fans itching for baseball with some competitive games to watch. Take my word for it, the WBC games are far more exciting then watching minor leaguers with triple-digit numbers on their backs botch grounders in spring training.

Although the WBC hasn’t exactly caught on yet in the United States, the other countries that participate take the tournament very seriously and raise the level of competition. Baseball is America’s pastime, but for Japan, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico (just to name a few), the WBC is an opportunity to establish national pride. Most of the top players from other countries immediately signed up to play in the WBC. Bernie Williams even came out of retirement to don the Puerto Rican uniform.

According to Rick Sutcliffe, who was covering the first round of games in Toronto for ESPN, the 2006 Team USA exuded a “country club atmosphere” where each player kept to himself. As a result, the Americans were defeated in the second round and finished in a shameful sixth place.

But this year, Team USA has a distinctly different attitude. Like their countrymen on the basketball court—who rightfully brought home the gold medal in the Beijing Olympics—the players are genuinely interested in playing for their country. This year’s roster features 24 legit stars. And unlike the 2006 squad, several players were rejected from the team this year given the increased demand for roster spots. Even after Chipper Jones, Dustin Pedroia, and Kevin Youkilis withdrew from the WBC with minor injuries, Evan Longoria and Brian Roberts jumped at the opportunity to join the team.

If this country is still apathetic towards the WBC, as professional representatives for the United States, it is encouraging to see that so many of our All-Stars care about something greater than their multi-year contracts.

When Team USA was on the verge of elimination at the hands of the Puerto Ricans last week, David Wright capped off a three-run rally to win the game that sent the entire team pouring out of the dugout towards the pitcher’s mound. While it wasn’t the Olympics, it was special. The message was clear: we want to win this thing, badly.

In 2005, the International Olympic Committee announced that baseball would be dropped from the docket for future competitions effective for the 2012 games. Following the 2008 Olympics, which were baseball and softball’s last (at least for now), the WBC immediately took on increased importance and may continue to grow now that it is the premiere international baseball competition.

The main argument against the WBC is that it provides star players with opportunities for injury before the regular season starts. However, while these highly paid athletes definitely have responsibilities to preserve their heath, minor injuries that are sustained in the WBC may actually have a positive impact.

Consider Chipper Jones’ strained oblique or Kevin Youkilis’ sore ankle. Both of those players would have felt pain in the opening few days of the regular season, but because they realized their injuries in early March, they now have an opportunity to improve their health in advance of the regular season.

I’ll admit that the WBC isn’t that exciting and that it raises some serious concerns about its proximity to the regular MLB season, but it has definitely come a long way from its first installment in 2006. And the championship game between Japan and South Korea tonight is definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Team USA suffered a rough defeat at the hands of the Japanese last night, and it doesn’t take experts to realize that the pitching staff is to blame. The Americans put forth a solid effort, but some of the nation’s top stars were absent from the WBC.

The impending MLB season will always be a reason for some players to dodge the Classic, but if American fans took up the cause and demanded that their country’s best athletes compete, then things might be different in 2012.
So what do you say, America? You’ve got three years to make a decision.

Jacob Shapiro is a List College junior majoring in history and Talmud.
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