It’s that time of the year again, when baseball begins to permeate into my writing, into my daily activities, and into life itself. Technically, it’s still a month away before the Major League Baseball season begins, and I go back to rooting for the Atlanta Braves again, but there’s still meaningful baseball being played currently in parts of the world, as the World Baseball Classic has been going on for a week now. I should say there was meaningful baseball being played, because in my case, my main involvement with the WBC has always been that Team Korea has always been present and played well at prior WBCs and international baseball tournaments in general. Well, they were knocked out of the WBC this morning, and despite playing in the semi-finals and the finals respectively in 2006 and 2009, they’re bounced in the first round this time.
It’s really ironic how it all happened too, considering that in the four-team pool that Korea was in, three teams went 2-1, with Australia embarrassing themselves going 0-3. But Korea didn’t do themselves any favors, getting embarrassed themselves, getting blanked against Curacao the Netherlands in the first game, which put them in the wrong side of a tie-break situation, which ended up coming to fruition, resulting the favored Koreans getting bounced, despite winning their last game against the cheating Taiwanese.
Leave it to Taiwan, who were playing in their own country and illegally scouted the Korean team way in advance, to still lose to the superior Korean team, but due to a technicality in a flawed round-robin format, manage to advance. Sounds like Taiwan advancing in the most Taiwan way possible, which is about the norm.
But it’s all in the past now. And as terrible as it is to say it, I’m not really upset about Korea getting bounced this early.
Because I’m pretty sure I’m the worst baseball fan on the planet.
But it’s not like Korea was entirely without blame. Their relief pitching was putrid, and none of their batters came to play. The team relied on their best bat – from 2006; to recreate the magic, at the baseball-ancient age of 36. The Koreans gave away outs on the basepaths with terrible base-running and decisions. Korea’s fielding was not nearly as crisp or machine-efficient as they had been in all prior international tournaments, and simply put, nobody was getting on base. It’s beyond obvious that the Korean team underestimated their pool opponents, especially Curacao the Netherlands, and that ended up being the one game that cost them the most.
Anyway, with Korea out of the tournament, it really means that I’m liberated in a sense from having to really care about the WBC any further. Sure, it would be nice to actually see the United States win at the tournament that they created. But considering they continue to practice the notion of cobbling together talent instead of constructing a team, I can’t really say I expect it, especially with two-time winning Japan still in contention. But really, at this point, I don’t really care who wins it. I have more time for myself and don’t feel obligated to really watch anymore WBC baseball, unless I’ve got nothing else to do.
I have to imagine that such a notion kind of does make me a pretty bad fan. Now I really do love baseball, and I do enjoy watching baseball, but I think I’m getting to a point where I’d rather watch it live than on television. But at the same time, going to the ballpark is kind of exasperating, unless it’s a minor league park, or it’s a completely new place. So as you can see, I’m kind of at this weird place with my baseball fandom, where the littlest things are going to throw things off.
Another instance of my terrible fandom happened last October; the Braves had won 94 games, and were serious contenders. But due to an absolutely stupid rule change of integrating a second Wild Card team, the always-dangerous St. Louis Cardinals snuck in the back door, beat the Braves in an absurd one-game playoff, and ended the Braves’ season in a single game.
Sure, I was incensed that the Braves’ season ended in such an absurd fashion, but I got over it real quick-like. I know of Braves fans that are still bitter about the ending of last season, as if they were unaware that at the start of any given baseball season, your team one of 30 teams vying for the World Series crown.
But it’s not that I got over the Braves’ loss quickly, it’s the fact that I was kind of relieved that the Braves were done. The same goes for Korea’s elimination. With my respective favored teams out of the running for glory, it means that I’m free of the obligation of having to care. After the Braves were bounced, I felt this feeling of liberation at knowing that I could take my trips to Disney and then Mexico, without having to give one iota of concern to what was happening in the baseball world. The same feelings are in play right now, for Korea’s elimination; the rest of the WBC is kind of meaningless to me now, and if I manage to make it down to Miami in a few weeks to catch one of the WBC games, then the outcome of that game has no meaning to me, instead of fretting on which team would be the less-favorable matchup for Korea in the finals.
It’s hard for me to really explain, but I don’t necessarily think that such a mindset is really good for a baseball fan. Or maybe it’s that I’m growing up, or maybe it’s that baseball as a whole is losing its importance with me. Either way, the fact that I feel relief when my favorite teams fail in critical win-or-go-home games can’t really be a good thing. I should be wanting them to win every single game, but at the same time, I kind of don’t want the stress that comes with living and dying with every single pitch, hit, and run anymore.
I confuse myself, sometimes.
