My impression was that the Americans – both the players and the fans – didn’t care. We were the least interested participant in this tournament. Every other nation/team saw it as a World-class event on par with the Olympics. We treated it as a side-show attraction, the prelude to the “real” baseball to come in the next month. And that is a crying shame. For something we paradoxically call “our national pasttime”, we should have more drive and determination and ambition when players put on a uniform saying “USA”.
I can’t help but think of the movie Miracle, and the scene when the coach finally gets his loose-knit bunch of players to realize that they’re not players from other teams playing a couple games on this new team. They are the Team of the United States of America. That should have been a badge of honor in and of itself, and should supersede the MLB teams all these players were on, and supersede the MLB teams we fans generally root for.