Starting NYNE 3-22

Paul, Alex and Steve cover the WBC and Red Sox with Boston Herlad columnist Sean McAdam. Then switch over to some NCAA Tournament talk to finish out the show. Click here to listen to last night's show.

WBC- It May Not Mean Much To Fans, But It Does To Players

One of the best scenes you could see on a baseball diamond occurred 3 days ago. Team USA squared off against Team Puerto Rico. The same Team Puerto Rico that mercy ruled the boys in Red, White and Blue the previous game. But this was a new game although Team USA was staring down the barrel of another loss to Puerto Rico.

With his team down by a run and on the brink of elimination, David Wright strolled to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, with the bases loaded. Wright proceeded to drop a single directly down the right field line, scoring 2 runs and advancing the USA into the Semi-Finals of the WBC.

The players rushed the field as if they had just won the World Series. It was dog piles galore. And I'm sure every owner from every team those players were on, let out a collective gasp when the ruckus ensued.

Alot of people around baseball and a majority of baseball fans don't seem to care much for the WBC. I've been wondering, why? In the picture above, it shows 4 players celebrating victory. Those 4 players are David Wright(a Met), Shane Victorino(a Phillie), Derek Jeter(a Yankee) and Kevin Youkilis(a Red Sock). Only because of the WBC would you ever see this happen. Players from teams who quite literally hate each other, jumping up and down like little leaguers for one cause. But unfortunately for the players, they had only themselves to celebrate with. Only 30,000 fans attended this game and although the majority were face painted with red, white and blue colors, it was for Puerto Rico. Kevin Youkilis to notice of this:

“I don’t think we have enough pride in this,” Youkilis said yesterday at Team USA’s workout. “It’s kind of a sad day - and I know it’s a tough time (economically) to buy tickets - when you see that. I don’t think there’s as much pride in the USA as there is for these other countries. There was a whole section of Dominican fans (Sunday) night just here to watch baseball. I think we’re losing a little bit of pride for, quote, ‘America’s national pastime.’ ”

Youkilis went on to say:

“It definitely hurts a little bit to know that you’re always the away team in your own country,” he said. “There are some good people out there, but it would be nice to have a lot more of those people chanting ‘USA,’ holding up American flags. That’s the one thing we didn’t see much of the other night - there were more Puerto Rican flags than American (flags).”

Hopefully, after such a dramatic win and such an exuberant celebration, these players will get the fans they deserve.

-Alex