After WBC, strike up the bland?
Major leagues could learn something from fun, emotional tourney
SAN DIEGO — They aren’t bleaching their hair platinum- blond, performing nolook tags or doing jumping jacks at home plate, like Team Puerto Rico.
They aren’t pulling giant plantains out of their pants during introductions, waving it in the dugout to incite rallies, like the Dominican Republic team.
They don’t pour from the dugout onto the field after every home run or celebrate a well- executed bunt like a walk- off hit like just about every other team in the World Baseball Classic.
Team USA acts differently, a byproduct of its environment, growing up and playing baseball in the United States, where public shows of emotions are frowned upon.
We’re used to handshakes and fist bumps after victories, not cartwheels. We watch hitters drop their bats, lower their heads and run around the bases without looking around after home runs. We see pitchers strike out the side and calmly walk toward the dugout, not flailing their arms and waving to the crowd.
Maybe that’s why this WBC is so beautiful. It lets us know that it’s OK to show fiery emotion on the field, in front of frenzied fans banging drums and blowing horns, as we witnessed in Mexico, Asia and Miami.
If Major League Baseball is so concerned about attracting millennials and seizing the attention of our youth, maybe we can take a page out of the WBC handbook, where there are no unwritten rules on how to curb your enthusiasm.
“I love it when you see the Dominican and Venezuelan teams, Puerto Rican teams jump all over,” Team USA center fielder Adam Jones said. “I love when you show a passion for something that you really enjoy doing. That shows that you care.
“Our style, we’re not as flamboyant as that, but we can get that way if you really want us to. But it’s just not our style. We get up when we need to get up.”
Yet, ever so slowly, one week into this two- week international tournament, U. S. players are losing their inhibitions and expressing themselves like everyone else.
Jones, the San Diego hometown hero, was throwing his right fist high into the air, hopping across home plate and skipping to the dugout Wednesday night after his game- tying home run in the Americans’ 4- 2 victory over Venezuela.
Eric Hosmer, who hit the gamewinning home run three batters later, raised both arms to the sky before reaching home plate, then yanked his arms away from his chest as if he were Superman.
The modest crowd of 16,635 at Petco Park went bonkers, loving the emotion.
“I think everybody’s saying that Team USA lacks emotion,” Jones said. “We just go out there and play a bland type of baseball. But, hey, we showed some emotion. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
“I think that people kind of liked that Team USA showed emotion.”
No one across the field was upset by their actions. No one in the USA clubhouse had to publicly apologize for showing anyone up. No one accused anyone of being disrespectful.
Simply, it was a glorious show of emotion, and with Puerto Rico on tap against Team USA on Friday night and the powerful Dominican Republic awaiting Saturday, you can be assured there will be plenty more in store.
“Hey, this is the tournament for it to happen,” Jones said. “If you’re going to do it, do it now and do it in winter ball. Some of the stuff I’ve seen, it’s probably not going to happen in the regular season.
“The bat flips that you see in the WBC, that’s not going to happen during the season. Unless it’s certain people, the big dogs. They can do that kind of stuff because they’ve earned that right.”
Then again, after what we’ve witnessed in this WBC, why can’t we see it during the season? Why can’t major- league players exhibit sheer joy and exuberance without the possibility of repercussions? Who’s it really harming? You don’t have to be in Little League to have fun, do you?
“I kind of wish it was more like that,” 22- year- old USA infielder Alex Bregman said. “Everybody locked in, rooting for their country and having a blast.
“Hopefully, it will continue to grow and get more people out watching.”
The WBC will be ending in less than a week, but once everyone goes home to their major- league teams to open the season, we can only hope this tournament’s passion and emotion will be around to stay.