Reporter: You have some teammates going to the WBC pretty soon. Does any part of you wish you could be there as well?
Syndergaard: Nope. Not one bit.
Reporter: Why not?
Syndergaard: Because I’m a Met. And ain’t nobody made it to the Hall of Fame or win the World Series playing in the WBC.
He’s not going to thrill anyone at the league office with that exchange, but it is honest.
Even if you think the World Baseball Classic is great -- and I know a lot of people who truly enjoy it -- the only real incentive for playing in the WBC is national pride and, perhaps, the ability to experience something different than the usual stuff one experiences in baseball.
While that impulse may vary from player to player, it’s worth noting that for most American players, baseball has never been strongly associated with international competition. Certainly not to the level which it is felt by players from countries which have a greater tradition of international tournaments. And by players familiar with the concept of having to leave one’s country to play the game at its highest level. When one does that, home probably matters more and one’s pride in one’s home country’s baseball tradition may be more important. That concept is utterly foreign to most U.S. players. When you grow up and play only in the United States you’re just not thinking about baseball in international terms. You’re pretty much only thinking about the World Series and your major league team.
I figure that has always been the case and will always be the case to some degree. The only thing that could have challenged it was if there had been some feeling of humiliation at losing the first WBC. Well, we’ve had three of them so far and the U.S. hasn’t won any of them, so there will never be some Dream Team push to assemble our country’s best players like we saw in basketball once upon a time.
The game went on with the U.S. not putting forth its best effort in the WBC and thus it always will. Syndergaard’s comments may not be the most diplomatic in this regard, but I suspect he is not alone in feeling that way.
