Who’s on first?
Better yet, who wants to play first base for Team USA?
This isn’t a question you would expect to be asking of the nation where baseball was invented and where talent abounds.
Team USA play Japan today in a World Baseball Classic semi-final matchup that has developed into a global rivalry. Daisuke Matsuzaka of Japan and the Boston Red Sox will face Roy Oswalt of Team USA and the Houston Astros.
But who will play first? The combination of restrictive Classic rules and of major league players’ declining to participate in the tournament has put the US in a bind.
Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox will miss the rest of the tournament with a sprained ankle.
Adam Dunn of the Washington Nationals played first base on Thursday night — and not gracefully — but the Nationals want Dunn to stay in the outfield.
Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa can play three positions, but the Indians don’t want him to play first.
Derrek Lee of the Cubs is a possible replacement, but he told Team USA manager Davey Johnson that his sore thigh would not allow him to play.
“We really don’t have a first baseman to go to, and that creates a problem,” Johnson said. “I’ve got to play some guys out of position, and that is an issue, a concern.”
UNDERDOG
In a way, the fact that the US has been ravaged by injuries and has had to rely on heart and grit has made Team USA a compelling underdog.
The team’s transformation took place earlier this week when it came back to beat Puerto Rico on a ninth-inning single by the Mets’ David Wright. The sight of bitter rivals — key players from the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Phillies and the Mets — jumping around on the field together afterward offered a glimpse of what the Classic is supposed to achieve: a celebration of baseball without boundaries.
Even after the US lost to Venezuela on Wednesday in a seeding game, DeRosa was on a cloud.
“That was one of the great moments in a lot of guys’ careers in there,” he said of the victory over Puerto Rico, “and it was a special moment rushing out on the field with all your teammates and advancing.”
On Friday, Wright, who will play today despite a torn toenail, said he was still being bombarded with congratulatory calls.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had so many phone calls and text messages after a game,” said Wright, who called Tuesday’s victory “a memory that for me lasts a lifetime.”
At a time when many are looking for inspiration anywhere it can be found, the US team has attracted attention. The US players are the WBC’s underdog millionaires.
Derek Jeter, who also played in the 2006 Classic, talked on Friday about the honor of playing in the tournament. Asked why he decided to play again — was it to avoid spring training? — Jeter mentioned national pride and honor.
“That’s the reason I’m here this time, not to get out of spring training for two or three weeks,” he said. “It’s to come out here and represent our country and win a championship here. Guys obviously have their reasons for not being able to participate, but I think more players wanted to play than not.”
SELF-INTEREST
A consistent undertone of the Classic has been who chooses to play and who declines. The decisions underline the tension between a player’s love of the game and his profound understanding of who butters his bread.
None of the players who stayed away doubt that the Classic is fun; it’s just that fun gives way to self-interest — the teams’ and the players’.
The Classic pits the business of Major League Baseball against the intrinsic joy of playing baseball.
Are you the Yankees’ second baseman or the US’ second baseman? Are you Boston’s first baseman or Team USA’s first baseman?
The San Diego Padres’ Jake Peavy, who will pitch tomorrow if the Americans reach the championship game, said: “I can’t imagine a player being asked to do this and being healthy and turning it down.”
The WBC also faces a number of challenges as it attempts to capture the imagination of a significant US market. March Madness is just beginning and the NBA is steaming toward its playoffs. Expecting fans to be excited over baseball in March is asking a lot, though this gritty US team may give the WBC what it needs.
“I’m sure we’ll have a big crowd on Sunday, but I think the American people are a little slow to get it,” Johnson said. “But I think the victory we had over Puerto Rico went a long way in creating fan interest.”
Next week, Team USA teammates will return to being Mets and Phillies, Yankees and Red Sox. Jeter and Wright will return to New York and opulent new stadiums. Others will leave their Japanese, South Korean or Venezuelan teams and make the pilgrimage back to the lucrative grind of a 162-game schedule.
For the here and now, though, Johnson has a conundrum.
Who’s going to play first?
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