MIAMI — The World Baseball Classic is a hit with players and fans. The attendance is way up, the energy and enthusiasm are through the loanDepot park roof and the vibe can’t be beat. The event has grown from a weak groundout two decades ago to at least a figurative double — but naturally, we still have a couple of small tweaks to make it even better (more on those below).
Raucous sellout crowds are energizing the players — or is it the other way around? And just because Team USA players aren’t dancing like the Dominican and Venezuelan stars, that doesn’t mean they aren’t feeling it.
“I can’t dance a lick, like [Fernando] Tatis can,” Bryce Harper said the other day, “but I can have fun playing this game.”
Team USA players are way into it, even the inactive ones. Tigers superstar starter Tarik Skubal was one-and-done as a Team USA player in his free agent year (and don’t blame him, impending free agent pitchers almost never participate at all). Yet, he returned, driving 4¹/₂ hours through a horrendous Florida-style thunderstorm to make it to the bench for the semifinal and final.
