A great game spoiled

I think we all figured that the US-Dominican Republic would be a great game. Two of the three most talented teams in the tournament going head to head. The incredible Dominican lineup against Paul Skenes, and the lesser Dominican pitching staff going up against a very good, but notch below, US offense.

And we got a one-run nail biter, but the score seems pretty absurd.

The US won 2-1, aided to an unfortunate degree by a completely blown full count pitch call to end the game. All of that firepower resulted in three solo homers and not much else. One by Dominican third baseman Junior Caminero, and one each by USA's Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony.

There were some great plays in the game. Aaron Judge nailed Fernando Tatis trying to go first to third. Bobby Witt made an incredible diving stop and throw to rob Manny Machado of a hit. Julio Rodriguez climbed the wall and took a homer from Judge.

With the tying run on third base in the ninth and two outs, Mason Miller "struck out" DR shortstop Geraldo Perdomo. It was a great at bat, with Perdomo spoiling several good pitches until he took the final pitch and got rung up.

But look at it:

That's not borderline. It also can't be reviewed via the ABS system because for some unknown reason the World Baseball Classic doesn't have it, even though they use all of the other new-ish MLB rules like the pitch clock, the Manfred Man(n) extra innings runner, the larger bases, etc.

That call was so bad that it would have caused an eruption of laughter from the crowd when the scoreboard revealed by how much home plate umpire Cory Blaser missed it by.

Ball four would have brought Fernando Tatis Jr. up with the tying run on third and the winning run on first to face fellow San Diego Padre Miller. It would have been a teammate v. teammate matchup akin to the way the 2023 WBC Final ended with Angels' teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout going at it.

The 2026 World Baseball Classic has been an unqualified success. The tournament has grown into a really fun and really cool event, with a lot of players clearly loving playing in it, and engaging with their teammates and their fans, and the atmospheres are unique and cool.

And then there's the bowl of floating turds that make up most of Team USA.

This team steps on their dicks whenever given a chance. Nobody expects them to be as much fun as the teams from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela or Puerto Rico, but not only don't they even come close, they have been significantly out funned by Team Italy, a team with more guys who either used to play, or still play, for the Kansas City Royals than they have actual Italians.

And now, through no fault of their own, the US' signature win is tainted by the ending. They won't care that they benefitted from a bad call, because the winning side never feels bad, but you can bet they'll get pissy between now and Tuesday night when people ask them about how they fell that the DR got screwed over.

I'm sure they'll handle it great.

Team USA has some fun guys. Our beloved Petecrow is a ball of fun, and you know that at some point he called his parents and asked, "Do we have any great aunts or uncles who ever lived in Santo Domingo?"

But there's too much of the team that wants to be seen as some sort of exaggerated "warfighter." It should really piss off Skenes. When he says he wanted to join the team as a tribute to those serving in the military he comes from the right place. He's in the Air Force Reserves, and he started his college career at the Air Force Academy. He's too damned big now to fit in a fighter jet cockpit and too damned good at baseball to not transfer to a school like LSU.

Reliever Griffin Jax is an actual graduate of the Air Force Academy, so if he wants he can talk about honoring the troops, too, I suppose.

But if other guys on the team want to play soldier, someone should remind them there's a war going on right now that they are free to go sign up for.

Their clueless manager not only couldn't read the pool standings last week, or be troubled to learn the tiebreakers, but he took the time to invite one of the members of SEAL Team Six to come give his players a motivational pep talk. You know, the always timely Osama bin Laden raid of...2011.

Stop equating playing in a baseball tournament with the military. Kyle Schwarber wearing American flag shorts doesn't make him a Marine any more than riding on a truck with a Dalmatian makes him a fireman.

And what the fuck was this?

What a shitload of bad choices. At least Bryce Harper picked a good one. (Which is a shock.) Mason Miller is just another moron who doesn't know what the lyrics to "Born in the USA" actually say. Logan Webb has no idea that Kenny Powers coming out to "Real American" was supposed to show what a fucking racist moron he was.

And then there was Big Dumper wearing this stupid fucking t-shirt and refusing to shake the hand of one of his actual teammates, Randy Arozarena during a game.

And, shouldn't a catcher (who is the only player on the field facing teammates and not the hitter) not wear that shirt, anyway?

The biggest problem this team has had with this tournament is that they clearly are weighed down by crushing expectations. They think that winning the tournament is their birthright and that they will embarrass themselves and the nation by not winning. Oh, they embarrass themselves and the nation alright. But the real fact is that the expectations they think are there, aren't.

They aren't the best team in the tournament. In a good year they are the third best team behind Japan and the Dominican Republic. And as for the fans? The tournament is fun, but their fans aren't living and dying with this shit. In a week real games will be starting and we will barely remember it happened.

They're a game away from winning it, which is fine. They had to get bailed out by the Italians to not be eliminated in the pool stage, but they've taken advantage of their second chance like you hoped they would. But the whole thing still feels off.

If they want to pretend you're in the army instead of playing an exhibition baseball tournament, this team of Francis Sawyers should at least take Sargent Hulka's advice.