It won’t matter, though, since the American players will never care about the WBC the way players in other countries do. American athletes (in all sports) are taught to put their professional teams above their national teams, which runs counter to the rest of the world’s sporting philosophy.

The only team of US pros I ever saw play with more passion than their foes was the Redeem Team in Beijing. Maybe after the baseball team gets clobbered in a few WBCs they’ll start to care more and have more players agree to participate (especially on the pitching side).

Of course that’s just my opinion, they could prove me wrong.