Friday, March 20, 2009

World Baseball Classic: Do American sports enthusiasts care?


Do American sports enthusiasts really care about the World Baseball Classic?

We’ll find out Sunday when the USA meets Japan in the semifinals at Dodger Stadium.

It certainly seemed like Americans cared when their team rallied from two runs down to defeat Puerto Rico, 6-5, and advance to the semifinals. Yes, the crowd in Miami went wild.

But before that, apathy seemed to be the word of the day.

USA pitcher Heath Bell, among others, expressed bewilderment that the USA fans were outnumbered the first time they played Puerto Rico in the US city of Miami. (It appeared that way in the second game; but American fans rallied when their team did.)

During the first round in Canada, USA fans were obviously in a minority vs. the Canadians. Yet that doesn’t explain why Venezuela appeared to have as many (or more) fans than America when the teams met in Toronto.

Don’t be surprised if the Japanese have many more supporters than the Americans when they meet in LA.

After all, the WBC is a much bigger deal to them than USA backers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the USA team cares. That is all that matters!