![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/korea_wbc26.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One thing that sometimes sucks about trying to be a dutiful brogger, is when there\u2019s a topic or something I want to write about that has a little bit of time sensitivity.\u00a0 Most often times, it happens when the topic is sports, and the case of it right now is the fact that I wanted to talk about the World Baseball Classic, and an upcoming game, but since baseball has the shortest time in between games, sometimes that can get a bit dicey, and when sleep, parenting and work obligations mount, I can\u2019t always be as on top of things as I\u2019d like to be sometimes.<\/span><\/p>\n But anyway, I still haven\u2019t really been watching any full games, but I\u2019ve been following the World Baseball Classic, because I\u2019ve been a fan of the global tournament since it started in 2006, and even when MLB gets insufferable sometimes, the WBC still remains somewhat pure and digestible, mostly on account of the fact that there are large swaths of players in the tournament who actually give a shit about the game and isn\u2019t necessarily just concerning themselves about dollar signs.<\/span><\/p>\n So let\u2019s get one thing out of the way here, I\u2019m stoked that Korea has managed to get out of the group stage for the first time since 2009, after numerous embarrassing early exits in 2013, 2017 and 2023.\u00a0 In true Team Korea fashion, they kind of backed into their advancement, mostly powered by the fact that they hung 16 runs on the lowly Czech national team, but they took consecutive losses against Japan and Taiwan, before getting the job done and clearing the run differential in a win against Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve followed enough KBO and Korean baseball players over the years to know where Korea\u2019s strengths and weaknesses lie, and I can comfortably say that as happy as I am that they\u2019ve advanced into the second round and will get to play ball on American soil, I\u2019m not liking their chances, seeing as how they will have to play either the Dominican Republic or Venezuela next; should they upset them, they might get an easier draw, but DR and Venezuela are basically two MLB All-Star squads.\u00a0 Korea can hit, but their pitching remains suspect, so it remains a lofty mountain to climb.<\/span><\/p>\n All I really hope is that they don\u2019t get blown out, and put up good fights against whomever they go up against, and bring honor to the Motherland.<\/span><\/p>\n But to get to the topic that really inspired this post, is Team USA, after their humiliating defeat at the squad of Team Italy.\u00a0 Of course, there\u2019s a part of me that wants to see the United States win the World Baseball Classic, I mean we invented the fucking sport, and yet have managed to only once win a tournament that Americans invented and massaged most rules to give Americans the most advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n However, given the state of \u2018Murica, my general agitation with the state of MLB and professional sports in general and just plain jaded outlook on all things \u2018Murica, there\u2019s a part of me that wouldn\u2019t necessarily find that much dissatisfaction at Team USA taking another L in the WBC, and be forced to watch either Japan, DR or Venezuela hoist the trophy at the end of the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n For starters, I was pretty excited about Team USA\u2019s chances when the roster started taking shape, and anchored by two Cy Young winners in Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes.\u00a0 I mean, even the mighty Japan and DR and Venezuela would have to kind of give the OJ Simpson face<\/a> at the thought of having to go through either of those guys.\u00a0 But then the Skubal drama began, where he said he was only going to pitch one game, against Great Britain, before leaving the team, and I\u2019m just like why the fuck are you even here then bro<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n I did take satisfaction at the first batter he faced taking him yard, because fuck him.<\/span><\/p>\n But aside from Skenes and 55 pitches from Skubal, the US pitching staff was pretty lean and full of mostly 3rd and 4th<\/sup> starters from mid-market teams, and it\u2019s obvious that a lot of requests for top-tier talent fell on deaf ears as pitchers across the league were in obvious body (and wallet) protect mode, and didn\u2019t want to risk injury pitching in the WBC, when the money is made in MLB.<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, the perception is often that the rest of the world is still way behind the US in baseball talent, and a pitching staff of an Ace and a bunch of mid-tier guys should still be adequate at taking on the rest of the world, but that\u2019s the kind of mentality that exemplifies why the United States has only won 1\/5 World Baseball Classics.<\/span><\/p>\n If anything at all, this is the WBC where it\u2019s become very apparent that the talent gaps between everyone and the United States have shrunk exponentially from the last go-around.\u00a0 A combination of relaxed participation rules, allowing players to represent countries up to their grandparents\u2019 birth countries, as well as just the fact that other countries are picking up baseball and are getting decent at it, and most importantly, the fact that a lot of other countries aren\u2019t just not <\/em>afraid of the Big Bad USA, they have disdain and a desire to defeat them.<\/span><\/p>\n Seeing the highlights of all these games where teams not the United States are playing with their balls hanging out and playing for their flags and not their wallets has been a thing of beauty, and considering the fact that the US isn\u2019t completely dominating makes me feel as if the 2026 WBC is a lot like the 2004 Summer Olympic Men\u2019s Basketball, where not only were no other countries afraid of the United States anymore, they were out for their blood, and were successfully drawing it.<\/span><\/p>\n Italy humiliating the United States shouldn\u2019t just be a wake-up call to USA Baseball, but was a glowing example of American arrogance<\/a> and a fatal lack of accountability.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long for the media to pick up on US manager Mark DeRosa\u2019s remarks before the Italy game, about how he had believed that Team USA had already secured their spot in the second round, because in reality they had not, and although he is deserving of the heat he took for making such a reckless statement, my knee-jerk thought was that yes, he is the manager of the squad, but he\u2019s still just one guy on a team with like nine managers and a 30-man roster; why didn\u2019t any single person among all those guys try and correct him or get him to walk back his stupid comments?<\/span><\/p>\n Either way, after the loss to Italy, it opened the door to a very interesting scenario where the United States could realistically be eliminated from the group stage of the tournament, for the first time ever.\u00a0 Their fate rested in the hands, bats and gloves of the Italy vs. Mexico game, where there were three possible outcomes, with one of them being the United States going home.<\/span><\/p>\n And this is where the time sensitivity comes into play, and I\u2019m sad to say that I already know the outcome of this scenario, because I didn\u2019t get a chance to write about all this until way later than I had hoped, but work and life got in the way.<\/span><\/p>\n But I thought it would\u2019ve been really, really, really interesting if Team Italy and Team Mexico colluded to rig their game to where they landed on the outcome where the United States were sent packing; me writing this out like this indicates that such did not happen, and the Italy\/Mexico game doesn\u2019t even have to finish for the fate to already be sealed.<\/span><\/p>\n Basically, had Mexico beaten Italy with four runs or less, the United States would have been eliminated with both Mexico and Italy advancing.\u00a0 An Italy win or a Mexico win with five runs+ would have the United States advancing, but like I said, it would\u2019ve been really something to see if Italy and Mexico colluded, and we saw some real shenanigans on national television, like Mexico nursing a 4-1 lead, and suddenly all players just sitting there striking out on three straight pitches over and over again until the game ended.<\/span><\/p>\n In a way, it would be just desserts for Team USA to go out in such a fashion, where their arrogance, ignorance, and just the fact that they\u2019re representing a flag that isn\u2019t particularly favored by many outside of the country and frankly many within it.<\/span><\/p>\n But last I checked the score, Italy was up on Mexico 9-1, so they\u2019re going to win the group, and the United States is going to squeak on through to the second round.\u00a0 Ironically, I think this does Team USA a favor, because if I\u2019m reading correctly, Italy will have to play Puerto Rico next, and the US gets Canada; there are lots of talented Canadians, but I think Puerto Rico is the more dangerous squad.\u00a0 Nationalistic pride, might backfire for the Italians, but they are playing pretty great, and frankly, this WBC doesn\u2019t seem like it has as overwhelming of a favorite as past ones have, and honestly, that\u2019s a good thing.<\/span><\/p>\n This has been a great World Baseball Classic, and I\u2019m glad to see that more of the world is catching up to me in recognizing the beauty that exists when players are playing for their flags and not just money.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One thing that sometimes sucks about trying to be a dutiful brogger, is when there\u2019s a topic or something I want to write about that has a little bit of time sensitivity.\u00a0 Most often times, it happens when the topic is sports, and the case of it right now is the fact that I wanted … Continue reading Let\u2019s talk about the 2026 World Baseball Classic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,62,79,45,205,103,83,58,49],"class_list":["post-51118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-murica","tag-baseball","tag-cashmoney","tag-fail","tag-mlb","tag-motherland","tag-observations","tag-sports","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51120,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118\/revisions\/51120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![American arrogance<\/a> and a fatal lack of accountability.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long for the media to pick up on US manager Mark DeRosa\u2019s remarks before the Italy game, about how he had believed that Team USA had already secured their spot in the second round, because in reality they had not, and although he is deserving of the heat he took for making such a reckless statement, my knee-jerk thought was that yes, he is the manager of the squad, but he\u2019s still just one guy on a team with like nine managers and a 30-man roster; why didn\u2019t any single person among all those guys try and correct him or get him to walk back his stupid comments?<\/span><\/p>\nEither way, after the loss to Italy, it opened the door to a very interesting scenario where the United States could realistically be eliminated from the group stage of the tournament, for the first time ever.\u00a0 Their fate rested in the hands, bats and gloves of the Italy vs. Mexico game, where there were three possible outcomes, with one of them being the United States going home.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd this is where the time sensitivity comes into play, and I\u2019m sad to say that I already know the outcome of this scenario, because I didn\u2019t get a chance to write about all this until way later than I had hoped, but work and life got in the way.<\/span><\/p>\nBut I thought it would\u2019ve been really, really, really interesting if Team Italy and Team Mexico colluded to rig their game to where they landed on the outcome where the United States were sent packing; me writing this out like this indicates that such did not happen, and the Italy\/Mexico game doesn\u2019t even have to finish for the fate to already be sealed.<\/span><\/p>\nBasically, had Mexico beaten Italy with four runs or less, the United States would have been eliminated with both Mexico and Italy advancing.\u00a0 An Italy win or a Mexico win with five runs+ would have the United States advancing, but like I said, it would\u2019ve been really something to see if Italy and Mexico colluded, and we saw some real shenanigans on national television, like Mexico nursing a 4-1 lead, and suddenly all players just sitting there striking out on three straight pitches over and over again until the game ended.<\/span><\/p>\nIn a way, it would be just desserts for Team USA to go out in such a fashion, where their arrogance, ignorance, and just the fact that they\u2019re representing a flag that isn\u2019t particularly favored by many outside of the country and frankly many within it.<\/span><\/p>\nBut last I checked the score, Italy was up on Mexico 9-1, so they\u2019re going to win the group, and the United States is going to squeak on through to the second round.\u00a0 Ironically, I think this does Team USA a favor, because if I\u2019m reading correctly, Italy will have to play Puerto Rico next, and the US gets Canada; there are lots of talented Canadians, but I think Puerto Rico is the more dangerous squad.\u00a0 Nationalistic pride, might backfire for the Italians, but they are playing pretty great, and frankly, this WBC doesn\u2019t seem like it has as overwhelming of a favorite as past ones have, and honestly, that\u2019s a good thing.<\/span><\/p>\nThis has been a great World Baseball Classic, and I\u2019m glad to see that more of the world is catching up to me in recognizing the beauty that exists when players are playing for their flags and not just money.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing that sometimes sucks about trying to be a dutiful brogger, is when there\u2019s a topic or something I want to write about that has a little bit of time sensitivity.\u00a0 Most often times, it happens when the topic is sports, and the case of it right now is the fact that I wanted … Continue reading Let\u2019s talk about the 2026 World Baseball Classic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176,62,79,45,205,103,83,58,49],"class_list":["post-51118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-murica","tag-baseball","tag-cashmoney","tag-fail","tag-mlb","tag-motherland","tag-observations","tag-sports","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51120,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51118\/revisions\/51120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/DR1JBA6X4AIqujX.jpg\"){kind=link}