LAS VEGAS — A glitzy news conference at the palatial Bellagio on Wednesday promoted the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Derek Jeter, the pride of the Yankees, was on hand to pitch the event. So was “world baseball ambassador” Tommy Lasorda. There was a cool video, too, recalling the drama of the inaugural 2006 WBC.
Team USA didn’t do too well in that event. Indeed, “embarrassed” was the operative word when an American team featuring Atlanta’s Chipper Jones, Cubs slugger Derrek Lee, an up-and-coming star named Matt Holliday and Yankees Johnny Damon, Alex Rodriguez and Jeter struck out on the world stage.
Team USA was eliminated in the second round in a 2-1 loss to Mexico in front of 38,284 fans at Angel Stadium. The red, white and blue finished 3-3.
Almost three years later, with the economy teetering, you have to wonder why Americans would care about WBC, Part II, when it opens in early March.
While the rest of the baseball world went bonkers the first time around — Japanese flags waving, South Korean fans clacking their noisemakers, players from the Dominican Republic wearing national pride on their sleeves — the U.S. just didn’t seem that into it. Baseball was invented in America, but the WBC seemed like a contrived event to American sports fans.
Jeter admitted as much Wednesday.
“I think when the World Baseball Classic first started there was a lot of skepticism, especially on behalf of the players,” he said. “No one knew it was going to work, and no one knew if they wanted to play and if it would take away from the season and spring training. Now you hear all of the players talk in the last three years, and everybody is asking about playing in the World Baseball Classic.”
Why? First of all, the excitement generated by other countries was genuine. But most of all, we Americans hate to lose.
“I think once our players started to realize what it means to wear your country on your chest and lose, they understood how important it is,” said Marcel Lachemann, the Rockies’ special assistant who was Team USA’s pitching coach in 2006 and will reprise that role in 2009. “Then our guys had to go back to spring training camps and explain what happened. I don’t think our guys want that to happen again.”
