Editorial: World Baseball (Shows) Classic (U.S.)

The fact that Japan won the inaugural World Baseball Classic last Monday is secondary news to which nation lost: not second place Cuba, but the United States of America.

Based on the setup for the two-week WBC, the U.S. should still be celebrating a victory in the World Cup of baseball, which they themselves thought up. The U.S. was given every opportunity to win the tournament yet all they could do was muster up the courage to throw it away, or more accurately, play it away.

To start the Classic off, the U.S. had the power (which of course they used) to put themselves in what was considered the easier bracket of teams in order to assure them an easy ride. The power teams, considered to be (in this order) the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and Cuba (based on previous international success), were all on the other half of the pools. The only way the United States would have had to play any of these teams would have been in the final. To relate it to EMU, it would be like an A league team playing in B league for intramurals during the regular season in order to ensure making the playoffs. Then, and only then, would they have to face off against the best A league teams.

Beyond the setup, unfair rules regarding the number of pitchers could throw also potentially limited teams by not allowing pitchers to remain in the game regardless of success. This rule was set up so major league pitchers would not hurt themselves yet left little room for teams whose pitchers are not in Major League Baseball. Based on final outcomes, neither the pools nor the pitching limits helped the United States win. Not even having the games played on home soil in familiar time zones helped.

The worst American display was robbing Japan, the eventual WBC champions, of a victory in the second round by reversing a correct call that would likely have given them the win. Only by the strength of the U.S. losing to the lowly Mexican team was Japan allowed to advance to the next round. The other finalist, Cuba, barely was allowed by the U.S. to play in the WBC due to communist affiliations, and only after the country agreed to donate all of its financial gain to Hurricane Katrina victims were they even allowed to play. Imagine, the U.S. almost single handedly impeded the progress of what have to be determined as the two best baseball teams in the world.

All in all, America's game is officially an international hit that will occur again in 2009. Other countries are up to facing the challenge, and the obstacles, of making our national pastime theirs. Though the U.S. lost, it is still chock-full of great players and good stories (for example, Ken Griffey led all hitters with a .524 batting average). Yet the U.S. leaves the WBC on a sour note with all the controversy that surrounds its genius idea for a World Cup of baseball. Hopefully the focus will remain solely on baseball and the purity of the game rather than the faults of the U.S.