2008 Woodie Awards
The World Baseball Classic: an American tragedy
Student sheds ight on the true purpose of international competition
Hale McGranahan
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The beginning of spring means a few different things for sports enthusiasts. For some the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the most hectic and exciting time of the year, sports-wise or not. Others see the warmer weather as the signal for spring training for Major League Baseball teams. The first day of spring in 2006 saw the first championship game for the World Baseball Classic.
When discussions of a World Baseball Classic began, there was speculation about how much viewers would care and the effort that players would put into it. Much concern came from the front offices of Major League Baseball teams in regards to their players playing in "meaningless" games. Fortunately for baseball fans, many of the league's best players represented their countries.
Monday night's championship game featured Japan and Cuba however it had one glaring problem: the United States' team was not playing for the chance to be called world champion. America did not even make the semi-finals.
Unable to defeat Mexico and qualify for the semi-finals, the American team put forth an effort that our country should not be proud of, it was downright embarrassing. Even more embarrassing was our loss to Canada in the previous group of round-robin games. Throughout the tournament, ESPN commentators continually made excuses for team America's poor performance.
The American team featured players such as Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Chipper Jones, and Ken Griffey Jr. These guys didn't deserve any of the excuses, as players on the American baseball team they should be expected to perform-baseball is this country's sport. Baseball is as American as mom and apple pie, if we lose those too what do we have left?
This question can be answered in one word-soccer. Germany plays host to the World Cup this June, if you didn't already know, the good ol' U.S. of A. has qualified too. This year America's team has the chance for a strong showing, like the World Cup four years ago in Korea/Japan, where America lost to Germany in the quarter-finals. Ranked fifth in the world, the American team will enter this years' World Cup with high expectations, a relative unknown to most previous American men's national teams.
Many soccer critics are skeptical about America's chances at getting out of its first group of opponents. America's first game is against the tough Czech Republic team on June 12th. On June 17th the America will play three time World Cup champion Italy. Following that match is Ghana on June 22nd. These teams are all in a group that plays a set of round robin matches against one another. America does not have to win every game, but winning two will assure them a game in the next round.
International basketball has not been the same since the first Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Since then many America teams have underachieved in various international tournaments. It seems as if basketball and baseball have seemed to change with times, much due to the success seen of foreign countries in these sports must be attributed to American funded training academies abroad.
Unfortunately for those same foreign countries, America has adapted the same concept for training programs at home with soccer. With a strong foundation of domestic competing players, and emerging superstars playing abroad, American soccer had made similar progress that basketball and baseball have in foreign countries. The most disheartening fact about soccer in America is that much of the country's population has yet to embrace the sport.
Once professional American basketball and baseball players realize the reward for winning is pride not money, gold medals and world championships will be brought back to American soil. The development of soccer in America is sure to bring about exciting times for American sports enthusiasts and painful ones for the Brazilians, British, Italians, and Germans.
