When Team USA manager Mark DeRosa assembled his squad for the World Baseball Classic, he created it with the intention of assembling baseball’s first-ever “Dream Team.” The additions of right fielder Aaron Judge, pitcher Paul Skenes, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and pitcher Mason Miller brought that idea to life. On paper, the team looked unstoppable, but managerial inexperience, poor team chemistry and lousy hitting in the championship game against Team Venezuela led to USA’s 3-2 defeat.
Through the first two pool-play games, Team USA scored 24 total runs against Brazil and Great Britain and looked like it was going to steamroll its way to another championship game. But fans’ perception of the team started changing after facing Mexico and Italy. Videos of catcher Cal Raleigh refusing to shake Mexico’s Randy Arozarena’s hand gave Team USA a bad look given that the two are teammates on the Seattle Mariners. Arozarena even expressed frustration towards Raleigh in an interview after the game where he said “That ‘Good to see you’ que me dijo, que su meta en culo,” which translates to “That ‘Good to see you’ he said to me, he can shove it up his a**.
After that dispute took place, DeRosa went on MLB Network before the team’s matchup against Team Italy and said, “We want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.” That was not the case. USA lost the game 8-6, jeopardizing their chances of advancing to the quarterfinals.
It goes to show that not only was DeRosa unaware of the tournament’s advancement rules, but the entire Team USA staff was as well, highlighting their incompetence. Luckily, they were bailed out by first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino’s three-home run game as Team Italy defeated Mexico 9-1.
On top of all these controversies, USA first baseman Bryce Harper stated in a post-game interview, “The WBC has been great, but it’s not the Olympics. No disrespect to the WBC or anything. But everybody knows when the Olympics are on, everybody is watching.”
Harper clearly meant no harm by the statement, but from a fan’s perspective, he is undermining the tournament’s importance, suggesting that no one cares about it enough to watch it. After Harper finished the WBC, hitting .214 with a .624 OPS, it makes the statement sound much worse.
The “Dream Team’s” bad vibes carried onto the field as well. During the championship matchup against Venezuela, the team struggled to bring runners home, stranding four throughout the game. It took a two-run homer from Harper in the bottom of the eighth inning to finally wake the team up, but it was too late as pitcher Garrett Whitlock gave up the go-ahead RBI in the ninth inning to third baseman Eugenio Suarez.
For fans who paid attention to Team USA throughout the WBC, it was clear that the team’s culture and managerial decisions were a tier below teams like Venezuela, Dominican Republic and Italy. Those teams played with abundant joy and passion, embarrassing Team USA with their loser attitude.
When the team did show emotion, it felt artificial rather than authentic. To make matters worse, DeRosa had no Major League managerial experience prior to the two WBC tournaments he managed. If the team had a proper manager and a culture, they undoubtedly would be the last team standing in the tournament.
