[ Monday ]
The World Baseball Classic...Who Cares?
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In an effort to squeeze every penny out of baseball fans, Major League Baseball, an USA organization, helped assemble baseball players from around the world to participate in competitive play. Ironically, unless you live on another planet, many of the players representing non-USA teams come from...duh...MLB franchises in the USA.
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A few of the players you might recognize from several MLB teams include pitchers Jorge Sosa and Odalis Perez, who will be playing on the Dominican Republic team. Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves will play for The Netherlands. Javy Lopez and Bernie Williams will represent Puerto Rico. Pete Orr and Chris Reitsma will be on Canada's team.
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Does this sound a little bit like the Olympics, where NBA millionaires represent a country where they were unable to make a living, and have not resided since birth? Same with the ice skaters who live and train in the USA, but represent countries such as Russia, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.
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It should come as no surprise that viewership in this year's Winter Olympic Games was down. It may be difficult to pull for your next door neighbor who represents Italy in the Games, since that person lives in Arlington, Texas... Perhaps the same wil be true for the WBC.
MM [13:26]
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