Overlooking Canada

First bad meant good, then da bomb, then phat, and now sick, so as far as I can tell the whole culture is going to hell and there ain’t nothin’ we can do about it. The latest evidence? My DVR recorded the U.S. vs. Canada WBC game, and after Cuba finally won their extra innings thriller ESPN cut over to the U.S. game just in time for the Americans to fall behind 7-0. But that’s not the issue: the issue is that the fans were booing them.

Are you freaking kidding me?

I harp on this subject too much. It’s probably the one thing that puts me into premature grumpy old guy mode more than anything else, and I don’t like striking that tone. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. I mean, maybe I am wrong; maybe I’m not just out of touch but also off base here, and maybe the booing is appropriate. It sure doesn’t strike me that way, though. Every instinct I have says this is another example of cultural lethargy.

What did they expect? A cruise to victory? With jacked up pitching restrictions (jacked up competition wise; they make sense in terms of the big picture), with guys not in shape or form yet, and with an opponent full of major leaguers, albeit non-All Stars... this isn’t a volatile equation? This doesn’t allow for the possibility of losing a game? An upset, sure, but Mr. Sutcliffe: “Stunning?” So maybe you’d lay heavy odds on the U.S. if this game was in August, but in March? If it were that easy for the U.S., why bother watching anyway?

This is baseball, sort of, and so anything can happen, even if usually it doesn’t. This time it did, and the underdog had a big inning and won the game. And people were offended enough to boo. Either that, or booing is so casual now that we can boo at the slightest sports-related inconvenience.

Then Adam Stern hit an inside the park homerun. I thought to myself, Well, you don’t see that... ever. So that was cool. Until I realized that they were booing Holliday for not getting to a ball that took a crazy bounce meanwhile he tweaked his leg and had to leave the game. Hey Holiday: You Suck! Right...

That inside the park homerun is why we half-watch these games: because there might just be a special moment. Not because we’re into the storyline, because it doesn’t exist. Not because of the tension, because until there is real pitching, it doesn’t exist. Not really.

We half-watch because Derrek Lee might drive a homerun to right-center, and it’s a beautiful hit. We half-watch because Roger Clemens might still have it, and that’s a marvel. We half-watch because these guys are great players, meaning that at any moment there might be a glimpse of greatness.

But should we expect greatness? Every play? Every game? To the point that we boo when a team of good Canadian players has a big inning? Come on.

Here’s the turn: great moments only happen when there is a genuine clash of peers performing at a high level. They bill this as a competition played for pride, but where’s the pride in the varsity beating the JV team? It’s like Chris Rock’s old joke about the guy who says, with pride, “I take care of my kids.” “You supposed to you dumb [expletive...] What you want, a cookie?” (Editor’s Note: For the record, I swear I had that written out before tonight’s episode of The Office used it.)

Nope, we can’t have it both ways. We can’t expect an easy victory and then also take pride in it. Maybe we wouldn’t take pride in it anyway because it doesn’t mean all that much, but at least now, with Canada’s victory, we can see that the WBC is not a cake walk. Which means that maybe this competition has a future after all.

They probably ought to move it to October and play it right after the World Series ends (condensing the playoffs by eliminating so many off days, or something). That way pitchers are ready to go, and if there is an injury, there is still several months before spring training to rehab. Then at least I would watch with some enthusiasm, especially as I’m never quite ready for baseball to end, and if they can “push the sun back into the sky and give us one more day of summer,” as Vin Scully said in For Love of the Game, then I have a feeling I’ll be all for it.

With the booing, I’m suggesting people were overreacting, and maybe I am too. Or maybe I’m taking on airs, and looking down my nose from my highbrow. Or maybe I should just shut up and let people do what they have a right to do. Fine. As of now, I will... at least until it’s in a game that matters.