U.S. Team Embarrassed By "Mercy Rule" .

[flounder]

Team U.S.A. absorbed a 11-1 'drubbing'at the hands of Puerto Rico at the World Baseball Classic. Acording to FoxSports, the game was stopped in the 7th inning, during which P.R. scored its final two runs. Most of the U.S. players did not know about the rule. That,in itself,is not shocking. We rarely get drubbed! Usually it's the other way around! We suddenly found ourselves in an unfamiliar role as the 'drubbe'. Hmmm. Not a good feeling.

U.S. catcher, Brian McCann only knew the game was over after glancing at Puerto Rico's bench being cleared of whopping players, hollering their enjoyment, while running onto the field. Then he heard the ump scream,"game time". "What", thought McCann.

2nd baseman, Mark DeRosa, put it best, saying, "When you put on this uniform, you don't expect to be part of a mercy rule". Yea, Mark, I feel ya. But stuff happens. Outfielder Adam Dunn added, "The word that comes to mind is embarrassing. It's inexcusable and uncalled for. It's (expletive) embarrassing".

The Padre pitcher, Jake Peavy, absorbed most of the punishment (he probably viewed the contest as 'spring training' work), and therein lies the problem. Trying to serve two conflicting programs. On one hand you're trying to prepare yourself for a six month (+plus a couple of weeks) season--out of necessity, and appease those if favor of a poorly scheduled WBC.

U.S.A. manager, Davey Johnson claims that he purposely left Peavy in the game --despite Peavy's ineffectiveness and the 50-pitch limit installed for the WBC--to allow him to get in his "Spring Training workout". That, despite the fact, the U.S.A. bullpen was loaded with relievers. Maybe he feels that 'relievers' don't need workouts. Or, more probably, he screwed-up.

Well, the WBC does provide an 'exhilarated phase' of Spring Training, not necessarily favored by MLB managers. But, it's there none-the-less. As an added caution, they(WBC) put in a "mercy rule". Some of the American players want to train, but the Latinos play for real (whole different mind-set). Hence, the 'mercy rule'.

 

[RunawaySlave]

If the United States wasn't so preoccupied with being the "best in the world" at everything, they'd see that all they need to do is get a national team just like every other country does. Instead, they think they can throw together a bunch of all stars and dominate everyone in every sport. What they don't realize, is that outside of the dwindling number of African Americans in the sport, that most of the best and the brighest ballplayers come from outside of the US. So while they can throw together a few brothas in hoops, that ain't working in baseball.

Maybe now they'll try to bring the game back to the inner cities in the north and those small towns in the south like they used to instead of looking all over the world (except Africa) for talent

 

[Actor4Truth]

If the United States wasn't so preoccupied with being the "best in the world" at everything, they'd see that all they need to do is get a national team just like every other country does. Instead, they think they can throw together a bunch of all stars and dominate everyone in every sport. What they don't realize, is that outside of the dwindling number of African Americans in the sport, that most of the best and the brighest ballplayers come from outside of the US. So while they can throw together a few brothas in hoops, that ain't working in baseball.

Maybe now they'll try to bring the game back to the inner cities in the north and those small towns in the south like they used to instead of looking all over the world (except Africa) for talent

I agree with you 110%.. but it will never happen.. baseball more then any other major sport.. is by far the most racist..!

 

[QueEx]

If the United States wasn't so preoccupied with being the "best in the world" at everything, they'd see that all they need to do is get a national team just like every other country does. Instead, they think they can throw together a bunch of all stars and dominate everyone in every sport.

I don't know how it was decided the U.S. team would be stocked (I could look it up but its not important here), but I agree with you that throwing a bunch of money (I mean all-stars) together has proven not to be the best way to construct a good U.S. team (recall the olympic basketball fiasco). It seems without much question that the bigger paid stars in the U.S. have other things on their mind than playing for pride, country and other corney reasons. There is a wealth of hungry talented athletes out there that want to show what they can do for the corn-ball reasons and a shot at becoming a star.

What they don't realize, is that outside of the dwindling number of African Americans in the sport, that most of the best and the brighest ballplayers come from outside of the US. So while they can throw together a few brothas in hoops, that ain't working in baseball.

Maybe now they'll try to bring the game back to the inner cities in the north and those small towns in the south like they used to instead of looking all over the world (except Africa) for talent

As you know, I'm from the south and I am bigger fan of baseball than any other sport. Not only was I pretty damn good myself, I have Negro-League pedigree in the fam. Back in the proverbial day, Saturday/Sunday semi-pro baseball was not was large and pick-up basketball was rare. Now, semi-pro baseball is practically non-existent and basketball is played everywhere, including in the multitude of indoor air conditioned gyms that have sprung up (with better political representation).

My point, I don't know about in the north, but in the south baseball isn't played anymore. Its not hard at any given moment to see 6-2 and above great physical specimen driving and leaping on outside courts late-afternoons or inside all day, with amazing athleticism. Some of them, hell many of them, would make excellent outfielders, if only they were exposed to the game. And then I notice a lot of the points with moves and quickness who will probably never see the inside of a college arena -- but with the speed and hands that could make excellent ss and 2b's. But, it only takes a few guys to get a great game of pick-up hoops going and there is that fantasy of big $$$ in basketball.

Terrence Moore, a reporter with the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote a couple of good articles on vanishing African American baseball players last year. See, Baseball’s still telling the ‘big lie’.

. . . baseball more then any other major sport.. is by far the most racist..!

Are you saying that is the reason for fewer African American ballplayers ???

QueEx

 

[RunawaySlave]

I agree with you 110%.. but it will never happen.. baseball more then any other major sport.. is by far the most racist..!

Of course racism abounds all throoughout the hall of the baseball world. But I think it is more elitist than racist. In that if you don't have the right outfit, you can't play type of thing.

Que, the only thing stopping us inner city baseball afficianados from doing it is the real estate. Funny you mentioned the "pickup" game. Well, it is very difficult to get that kind of action going anymore in the city. Any park you go to, you are almost always going to need permits. As children, I can remember gathering up all the bats, gloves and baseballs we had (I was in charge of everyone's equipment....I made SURE I was gonna play, lol...and going to the park to play. We NEVER had to ask anyone, we just took the field. And whoever took the field first had the field until they were done. We could also create fields out of virtually nothing. We used the street, the playground, the park, our front steps (we call it a stoop), the sidewalk, whatever.


Today, it is much more difficult to get it organized. For one thing, the damn baseball gloves cost like 100 bucks now. A bat cost around the same. As a child, I NEVER owned any baseball equipment (poverty). But I damn sure knew where to steal it from. Today, you try to steal a baseball bat from a league game, they might beat you to death with it.

 

[The Black HHH]

Take that Crackas!!!
(sorry Jimmy Rollins)

 

[963852]

They won the elimination game against the Dutch earlier today by the way, just an update. Sports in the U.S.A. is different from other countries, the main difference being that is parmount to the owners. I'm not saying that sports C.E.O.'s should empty their wallets for their teams but it's never for the love of the game anymore. They have a product on the field(court/areana etc) that they invested in and would not like to risk even its for national pride. That line of thinking makes it's way down to the players and they don't want to risk their contracts to protect their pockets. When other countries enter worldwide sporting tournaments, their best of the best will be in country colors barring injury. The U.S does not always do this because owners want to protect their product. People always talk about national pride and whatnot, they get on people like Obama for not wearing a flag pin. Then when comes time where a measure of national pride actually comes up, they come up short.