One of the great things about baseball is its multinationality. At one point last year, the Nationals had seven or eight different countries represented on the team. The World Series is truly a world series, especially since many Asian players are making their way to the Majors these days.
There is one thing that bothers me about the World Baseball Classic, aside from the obvious concern that it will detract from players' preparation for the season. It's this division, this segregation of nationalities and the "pride" associated with it. You see, pride is one of the seven deadly sins. Pride is considered the root of all evil, as it is the reason Lucifer fell. Ahh, but I digress...
MLB.com has an article today about international competition and players' experiences with it that made me think about the issue. See, flagwaving bothers me. It's this "us verses them" mentality that lends discomfort to my mind, as this mentality is the essence of conflict. Of course, it can be argued that international sport has done much to diffuse tension from other conflicts, although cases like the Moscow and LA Olympics may have exacerbated already tense relationships between countries. In these cases, there was real hatred for certain teams. And we can't forget Munich, the greatest tragedy of all international sport.
It's not that I dislike international competition. Quite the opposite. I'm just looking at the underlying reasons it exists. I have to say I was rooting for the Iraqi soccer team last year on account of everything they had to face to get as far as they did. I guess the international level isn't that different than regional competition. I mean, why do we root, root, root for the home team? (At least some of us do. You're always going to have your bandwagon frontrunners.) People by nature are tribal creatures, and though those tribes are becoming intertwined, we'll never truly get away from it.
On another note, it also shows the greatness of American multiculturalism, as many of the players playing for teams beside Team USA are also American citizens. Indeed, A-Rod isn't even playing because he did not want to choose one particular country to play for, and even though he is a Yankee, I respect him (a bit) for that.
So, what is the conclusion? Is international competition good or bad? As long as it's friendly, I think it's great.
Pray that we get some good Cuban defectors this March.
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