CLEARWATER, Fla. — How did you spend your Wednesday night? I spent mine counting the number of Colombian baseball players I could name while sitting at a bar that shares a parking lot with a Shell station and a laundromat. This was a few miles from the Tampa airport, near the hotel where I spent the night before heading to the Phillies spring training complex the following morning. There was an ash tray on the table and an RV in the parking lot and a World Baseball Classic game on television. It all seemed to fit.
Or, so I thought.
See, I’d always been a bit of a cynic about the WBC. The concept itself is fine. Nobody can deny the logical appeal of crowning a true world champion. Take the best baseball players in every baseball-playing country in the world and have them compete in a winner-take-all-tournament. It makes perfect sense. It sounds exciting. It just doesn’t work.
