Pride, Business, and the State of American Athletes

Monday night’s World Baseball Classic finale was intense. There was a packed stadium, filled with Korean and Japanese fans.

There was an incredible big-game atmosphere. There was even a World Series-esque celebration that included Japan’s manager getting tossed around like he was at a Motley Crue concert.

But with the exception of the media coverage, there were no Americans as the USA squad was stomped out by the Japanese in this year’s semifinals.

However it isn’t the fact they lost that upset me. It was the team’s makeup. In an event that reminded me all too well of Olympic basketball from several years back, team USA looked like a team that was uninspired, but more importantly poorly put together.

Much like the first USA basketball teams to field professional players and lose, this USA baseball team had some stars, but not enough of the A-list. And a lot of the reasoning for this coincides with basketball as well.

The major American sporting leagues are bar none the most successful and the most sought after on the planet. They pay the most money and (with the exception of international soccer) they draw the most revenue.

This fact is made even more evident by the incredible international population of every major American sport sans NFL football, which is only played in America.

But it’s interesting that I mention the international population (mostly because I needed a good segue) because every international team, in every sport, has somehow managed to get all of their megastars to play in international competition. America is the only nation that hasn't.

Essentially, every country has an incredible sense of nationalistic pride when it comes to sports. And unlike our case in the US, the pride doesn’t have to be manufactured.

Perhaps it is because American athletes are like no others in the world. They are the center of tabloids, protected jewels of organizations. They are idols in the legitimate sense of the word, dealing with the most ridiculous media on the planet

But from day one we are supposed to be fighting on the field, the pitch, the ice, or the court for our pride. And when I watch the US compete in an event like the WBC, I genuinely wonder where our pride has gone.

I do believe that we sometimes take for granted how good our professional leagues are. The outcome of the WBC doesn’t convince me that the MLB championship shouldn’t be called the World Series because all of the world’s best play in the states.

The same goes for the NBA and NHL. But when the business elements kick in, I can’t help but scratch my head and wonder where all the pride has gone.

And if you don’t think it’s about pride, I strongly urge you to consider the fact that in 2008, US basketball players for the first time in nearly a decade, decided to take international play seriously. That pride was manufactured after a catastrophe.

If sport really is a microcosm of society, then we need look no further than the rest of the world. We live on a planet where a country called for a cease-fire during a civil war, so that civilians could watch their team play in the World Cup in peace.

The pride of victory is unparalleled. And that element of pride begs a seemingly unanswerable question…

Why have we Americans become so complacent?