With the Torino Olympics over, the two-week stretch where people pretend that they are sports fans can officially come to a close. The people that 'oohed' and 'ahhed' at Shaun White on his snowboard can go back to watching the X-games and people that cried along with figure skater Sasha Cohen after her silver medal-winning falls can return to their daily soaps.
Tonight, though, a new national competition begins when the World Baseball Classic officially kicks off. At 9:30 p.m. the Tokyo Dome will host the Korean and the Chinese Taipei teams in the first game of the event. Manager Hua-Wei Lin will hope his lineup can master new Los Angeles Dodger starter Jae-Weong Seo.
While the Classic includes 16 teams, including MLB breeding grounds like the Dominican Republic and baseball-frenzied nations such as Japan, it is also comprised of countries like Italy and South Africa, nations where baseball might be the eighth sport taught to youngsters after mountain unicycling.
Sure, a player like 12-time all-star Mike Piazza, though raised in Phoenixville, Pa., feels like tapping into his roots and playing for his motherland, but it's simply unfair to group the Italian club in a pool with such a powerful team from the Dominican or such an experienced club from Venezuela.
This whole deal could be thought of as an experiment, but experiments can go horribly wrong... and this is simply not the time to test it out. Maybe I'm just biased, but when I see my beloved Mets trot nine guys out in the event from the newly aquired Carlos Delgado to middle relievers like Juan Padilla (both on the Puerto Rican squads), I want to see them come back healthy. A lot of these guys play winter ball and in the Carribean World Series. Is it really a good idea to have another big tournament during spring training when players should be preparing for their jobs?
Some players don't think it's worth it. The world champion White Sox know their ace Mark Buehrle is safe. He's not throwing in the Classic. Boston can rest easy knowing Manny won't be trotting out for the Dominican Republic either. And I'm certain that the Yankees are thanking the ghost of Joe DiMaggio that New Jersey native Ron Villone backed away from the Italian squad.
Other players aren't playing because of pride. Orioles' thirdbaseman Melvin Mora refused to play for the Venezuelan squad if he was going to have to play centerfield, a position he hadn't played consistently since he was with the Mets in 2000. He thought it was disrespectful that he be moved from his position in favor of 23-year-old Miguel Cabrera, who had five more home runs, 28 more RBIs and hit 40 points higher than the aforementioned Mora last season.
There are a lot of things that are classic. Alando Tucker's runner over the Hawkeyes' Adam Huluska in the Big Ten tourney last year. That's classic. Terrell Owens' press conference with guardian angel Drew Rosenhaus. That's classic. Watching UW women's forward Danielle Ward hit turn-arounds over the Penn State front line today. That might even be classic. Having MVP candidates like Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Albert Pujols and Miguel Tejada possibly on the disabled list, though. Yeah, that's not so classic anymore, is it?
