WBC Causing Me to Do Strange Things
By Cecilio's Scribe on Mar 07, 2009 with Comments 0
Honestly, I can’t think of too many players that draw my ire more than, say, Chipper (Larry) Jones or Shane Fly-the-F-Back-to-Hawaii Victorino. At least that’s the way I think and talk about them come April. Yet, something’s different this March. Today, I found myself rooting on Jeter and Chipper and J-Roll and the Flyin’ Hawaiian. Why? How? What’s flipped the world on its axis and supspended the time-space continuum? The World Baseball Classic has crept up again after its inaugural appearance in ’06 and guess what? I’m into it. Big time.
Maybe it’s the “embarrasment” of Team USA’s showing at its own game last time around. Perhaps it’s some of the feel-good hangover I still have from a more-exciting-than-I’d-anticipated summer Olympics. Whatever the reason, I was tuned in this afternoon for Team USA’s match-up with Canada and plan to be for the rest of the way. And, frankly, this is what MLB brass was banking on.
The pandemonium from around the world is almost too be expected. International crowds and ratings only confirmed it during the WBC’s 2006 edition. It’s getting the American die-hard like me, a Mets season ticket holder, to give a flying you-know-what. It’s convincing a fan that bleeds blue-and-0range to throw their support behind a guy who typically wears pinstripes or plays their games in a home stadium where the Tomahawk Chop is a naueating and constant murmur — therein lies the challenge.
Do I understand those who are so into their teams that the only thing they associate with the WBC is fear – fear that their team’s stud player will get hurt, fear the season could be lost alongside that superstar? Sure. But, I’ve been successfully blinded by the stars and stripes on their jerseys and hats, and if you call yourself a baseball fan, that’s the only uniform you’ll start to associate with these guys – at least for the next few weeks.
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