Good Things About Losing

Personally, I've always liked the fact that when Canada gets its butt whipped at hockey, there's an outcry.

Seems like that's been a productive dynamic over the decades. It made us look at our game after '72. After losing at the World Cup in 1996, the Olympics in '98 and suffering an embarrassing defeat to Kazahkstan at the 1998 world junior championships, Canadian hockey authorities held the Open Ice Summit that did a useful and thorough examination of the game in Canada.

There will always be those who say nothing was wrong in the first place, but they're wrong. Skill and speed in the game is embraced far more today than it was a decade ago in this country, and we're producing far more highly talented offensive players than grinders and goons.

So when we lose, we care. That's a good thing.

Contrast that with the absolute lack of any widespread outcry in the United States over the defeat of their national baseball squad at the World Baseball Classic to Japan on Sunday night, which was followed by the thrilling Japanese victory over South Korea last night in the championship game.

Right now, the main response I'm hearing from the U.S. media is "Who Cares?," truly an indictment of the way in which that country feels these days about its national pastime.

"Did you shrug your shoulders? Did you shake your head? Did you even bother to do any of that before flipping over to see the college basketball scores? " wrote Mike Vaccaro in the New York Post.

"And that's the problem. The World Baseball Classic is doomed to remain a glorified exhibition for as long as that indifference lingers and lasts in the mindset of the United States. Sorry if that sounds parochial.

"Apologies if that seems like the ugly ramblings of an ugly American. Sometimes, the truth ain't pretty."

Others, like William Rhoden of the New York Times, read more into the U.S. defeat.

"It was as if the United States was being reintroduced to a game it invented. The American game, for better or for worse, has moved to lavish new stadiums and supports lucrative player contracts. It is built on power and entertainment — a deadly combination, we’ve discovered, in an era of performance-enhancing drugs," wrote Rhoden.

"Meanwhile, nations like Japan and South Korea have learned our game, digested it and improved upon it by going back to the basics.

"'The world has caught up with us,' Bob Watson, a Major League Baseball vice president, said after Sunday’s loss."

Echoes of Canadian hockey after '72, huh?

The question is whether watching Japan capture the first two WBC events will alter the way in which the U.S. plays the game, and it doesn't sound like it. There was more talk about whether the U.S. had access to the right players for this event rather than whether they play the game in a way that will be successful internationally.

"Perhaps the result would have been no different had the U.S. had a better roster. But it would have been nice to see the two best American pitchers, Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum," wrote Bill Shaikin in the Los Angeles Times.

"It would have been nice to see Ryan Howard or Mark Teixeira playing first base, instead of a second baseman named Mark DeRosa. It would have been nice if Adam Dunn had been used at designated hitter instead of in right field, where he did not even try to throw out two runners on sacrifice flies that were not terribly deep."

Somehow I don't see an Open Field Summit coming for U.S. baseball.

 

 

Comments

[gump]

The basketball "dream team" didn't get the same treatment when they blew chunks in the 2004 Summer Olympics..They were butchered by the media..Maybe folks in the U.S care more about basketball then they do about baseball..Its funny, here we have the so called "Ämerican game" and yet they just don't seem to care about showing the world how good they are..

[Sanj]

The biggest difference is that we sent our best players to the hockey tournaments u use as an example. However, the US didn't send it's best baseball players to the WBC. I would imagine that would be a big reason why the US isn't too worried about not winning the thing.

[Simon S-G]

Personally I think that the MLB, MLBPA, and pretty well everyone associated with American professional baseball, is very hypocritical about this whole thing. Here you have an event designed by Major League Baseball to offset the fact baseball is being eliminated from the Olympics. It's designed to grow the game globally. And it most definetley has worked, in that regard. Sure, baseball will never be number one in the Netherlands, but how many kids will look at that pesky Dutch team beating the Dominican and say, "Hey, maybe we can do this?" Then they will pick up a bat and ball and be Leon Boyd striking out Big Papi, then pretend they are that second baseman DeCaster getting the winning single in the 11th. And that's not even mentioning Korea and Japan, where the countries allegiance to the "Church of Baseball" was probably strengthened by the WBC.
But for the USA, these same people who talk about wanting the game to grow, who talk about how meaningful it is to put their country's uniform on, they don't even look like they give a flying foodoo. And the MLBPA and General Managers endorse the event, while then refusing to sign off on their players going. Well which do you want? You can't have both?
I'll bet in Japan fans of the Yokohama BayStars are sad that their star third baseman got hurt in the WBC, and will miss the first few months of the season. But that's offset by the fact Japan won the WBC. They know he was lost for his club because he put himself on the line for the nation. If the USA had won, how many Red Sox fans would feel the same way about losing Youk and Pedroia to help their country win? I guarantee zero.

[Tim]

The US response will be to just not field a team.
Then you can say you didn't lose so you must be the best.

[mark]

How convenient of the Americans to use the excuse "we don't have our best lineup." While that may be true, it doesn't prove a thing. Only an arrogant (yes... 'ugly') American would claim to be the best without backing it up. The "World Series" is a sham. Call it what it is: a league championship. Nothing more. It proves one high priced group of men wearing city inspired laundry can beat another city/laundry team in the game of baseball. It does not prove that the United States best can beat Japan's best or Cuba's best or South Korea's best. It doesn't even prove that the winner of this league championship is the best club team in the world. Who's to say that the Tokyo Giants couldn't beat the San Francisco Giants? Wake up America, the game is passing you by. MLB, you are losing fans and credibility.

[chris]

Without a stronger American presence or interest, the World Baseball Classic is doomed no matter how many other countries are more interested in it.

[2nd Guess]

Notice not a word has been said about baseball in Canada. Our major-league starting pitchers also gave the tournament a pass, placing national pride behind obligation to their club teams. As a result, the sport (on this side of the border) missed a big opportunity to invest in grassroots programs by dropping that stink-bomb to Italy (believe Baseball Canada would have received something like $500,000 had the team advanced).

Damien, you're right about the Asian teams. They remind me of the National League of my youth, when biting and scratching for runs was not considered a sign of weakness -- and you paid attention to every pitch. Major League Baseball's love of SABRmetrics has turned the North American game during the last 15 years into a lazy process based on "working the count" and waiting for the long ball. Might be the biggest reason why youth in this country is tuning baseball out.

[Clint]

"The best players" will always be more concerned with their major league, major money contracts than their national pride. That's just reality down here.

[Milton Red]

First I think its a little disengenious to only comment on how serious America takes this competition. The event was surely a wash out here in Toronto. A very healthy crowd of 40,000+ showed up for Canada V USA, but other games got crowds low even by Jays standards. Furthermore, the Canadian team was no closer to being the best team possible, than the US team was. Italy's defeat of Canada was greeted with apathy. I realise that Damien is referencing "national" sports, but hey this was being held on our doorstop in the one city with an MLB franchise!
Perhaps it suits MLB to have teams outside of the US do well, after all MLB is hardly doing badly, so its not really aimed at the US audience. Victory for Japan or Korea is maybe the best outcome in fact!

[Rick Grace]

The Americans get their butts kicked and out come the excuses.
Here they are again getting demolished, yet come World Series time they'll still refer to their champions as "world" champions. I say enough of the hero worship of those people.
The rest of the world has caught them and passed them by.

[Joe Robinson]

To get the Americans interested, the various regions should compete. Just like in the UK in the various world soccer tourneys (Team England, Wales, Scotland), you could divide the USA up into areas such as: Team California, Team Texas, Team Mid-West, Team New England, or something like. Only the players born in those states could compete for the team. I don't see why this wouldn't work, because it does in international soccer. The USA only cares if they are competing with themselves.

[Ray Y]

There was nothing wrong in the first place. Lets put things in persepective. Firstly, the Summit was held in 1999 because of our defeat in 96 and defeat in 98 at best on best tournaments. In 96 the US got lucky with a couple of bad goals on Joseph. In 98 we were rolling along until that shootout, even though we brought along a line of grinders whose soul purpose was to beat the US. Secondly, it would take a while before the effects of the Summit were felt. In the meantime, pre-summit, we still managed to produce Thornton and Lecavlier. Post-summit, before the effects of any changes could arguably be felt, we produced Eric Staal, Jay Bouwmeister Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Nathan Horton, Dion Phaneuf, Jeff Carter, and Corey Perry. Those guys are hardly your grinders and goons. They all would have been around 15-18 when the Summit took place. I hate to sound like Don Cherry but we produce the greatest players in the world, no matter what. Plain and simple, the Summit was a panic move driven by the Media because we were on a cold streak.

[Joel]

The event got off on the wrong foot when it was created as the "World Baseball CLASSIC". That's not appropriate at all for this event. Championship, yes. Classic, not even close.

In fact, I would argue that it should be called the "World Series"-- oh wait, the Americans took that.