WBC

By Ed Piper, Jr.

I haven't watched much of the World Baseball Classic since it started Mon., March 6. I watched some yesterday (Thurs., March 9) morning and evening, and early this morning (6:15 a.m. - actually not WBC action, but Venezuela's WBC team playing the Texas Rangers). A couple of thoughts:

One is, no one in the U.S. seems to be paying attention. I chatted with the campus supervisor where I'm substitute-teaching today, Abraxas, a continuation school in Poway. A male interested in sports, he said he didn't even know the WBC was going on. Then we chatted about the ludicrous nature (it seemed to us) of the Chargers playing in a soccer stadium with 20,000-seat capacity, and in Los Angeles (all the ardent Charger fans I've ever heard of live in San Diego).

But for Dominicans, it's a religion. At least from the clips I see on television. Their lineup is loaded: Robinson Cano,  Dellin Betances (pitcher), Jose Bautista, who had four RBI's yesterday, and on and on.

The WBC is also a big deal for the Japanese, Koreans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans. But not for us.

The other thing I noticed while reviewing Japan's titles in the first two WBC's--2006 and 2009--and the Dominican Republic's in the 2013 edition, international players who formerly might not have attracted as much attention by Major League clubs have been helped by their stellar performances in the WBC.

Nori Aoki, formerly an outfielder for the Giants who I watched at Spring Training in Phoenix, probably isn't the best example. But he played for Japan in the first WBC in 2006, and though he was probably on MLB's radar before then, exposure in the international event probably didn't hurt in his coming to play in the U.S. for the 2014 World Series champions.

I was impressed by the Dominican Republic's smacking of Canada last night. Robinson Cano, a superstar and the face of the Seattle Mariners, bats down in the lineup because it is so loaded with top major league talent.

Isn't it interesting how the Dominican Republic, along with Venezuela and Puerto Rico, is a hotbed for talent that is a prominent element of baseball the past several years? Major League Baseball has been trying to promote the game among inner city youth in the U.S. the last decade or more, with the RBI program. Frequently, it is said that kids of color (again, I'm talking about the U.S.) often are drawn to football and basketball in youth leagues and high school as more glamorous sports.