WBC: Fun

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I have been watching much more of the World Baseball Classic this week (see earlier entry), and enjoying moments like Nolan Arenado's jump or dive--not slide--into first base last Fri., March 10, to beat the throw and allow the runner to score from third on a passed-ball third strike. That tied the U.S., 2-2, with Colombia, setting up the Americans to win in the bottom of the 10th on Adam Jones' single.

Jose Quintana, ace right-hander for the Chicago White Sox, had no-hit Team USA for 5 2/3 innings, so the breakthrough involving Arenado was earth-shaking and a spark to the Americans going on to win.

The U.S. is famous for being blase about the WBC. We have never won a tournament that we started in the first place, and Team USA has never done better than the semifinals, which was way back in the first WBC in 2006.

In that time, Japan won the tournament in 2006 and 2009, then the Dominican Republic--one of the two favorites with the U.S. this year--sweeping its games to win in 2013.

I've surprised myself by identifying with the U.S. team. I lived a year in Mexico City right out of college, teaching English and playing basketball there. Since then--ask my wife--I identify, empathize, emote with the Latins, which I have done in the WBC as well: the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, especially, have been very expressive during the tournament. They're a lot of fun to watch.

I attended Spring Training in Arizona prior to the WBC, so I'm sure that had much to do with getting me warmed up for baseball and able to focus on an event that formerly I didn't pay much attention to.

Another reason I've paid attention to the Americans is their loaded lineup: This is no roster of a bunch of also-rans. I had not heard of Marcus Stroman of the Blue Jays before. The right-handed starter was excellent Saturday in 4 2/3 shutout innings against the powerhouse Dominican Republic team.

The U.S. has big names like Buster Posey, Giancarlo Stanton, Paul Goldsmith, and Eric Hosmer, among others. These are top, top players.

The odd part of the WBC is the pitch limit. Major League clubs, who gave their blessing to the international event when the Olympics dropped baseball in 2005, are still wary and rightfully concerned about their athletes getting injured in the event. Mark Teixeira, a position player, hurt his wrist, then was only able to get 15 at-bats the whole season following his injury. It's stories like that that become MLB's nightmare.

So, Stroman, despite sailing against the power-packed DR lineup, was lifted after 4 2/3 innings, hitting his pitch limit. In the middle of an inning! This would never happen in a Major League playoff game. But such are the allowances to protect pitchers, especially, from overwork and over-extension.

A tricky part of the equation is finding a time of year convenient for each country's top baseball players to participate. With the Major Leagues, pitchers have just reported to Spring Training when the WBC starts in early March. Their arms are not season-ready. Some of the pitchers have been throwing prior to Spring Training to build up their arms to be ready for the classic. The downside of that is that, once the tournament is over, they still have a whole Major League season to pitch.

There are only so many bullets in any pitcher's arm.