Captain America Mike Trout Says The World Baseball Classic Still Rocks And The Haters And Losers Can Suck A Fat One
That's my captain. U-S-A! U-S-A!
The takes were out in full force on Wednesday night after Edwin Diaz suffered what appeared to be a serious and possibly season-ending celebrating Puerto Rico's big win over the Dominican Republic to advance out of their pool. End the World Baseball Classic entirely. Play it in November after guys have just finished playing 162 games in 180 days. Play it with only minor leaguers.
And look, Mets fans obviously have a right to be upset. What happened to Diaz sucks and it will have a huge impact on the Mets' season and the MLB season as a whole. But to say let's end one of the coolest events we have in baseball because one guy had a freak accident is just ridiculous. Diaz could have just as easily had the same injury when the Mets celebrated a mythical World Series in spring training a couple years ago.
I'm glad Mike Trout and Mookie Betts expressed their love of the event and getting to represent their country. Has anybody involved in this WBC discourse actually watched any of these games? The Japanese games in Tokyo are electric. Cuban and Puerto Rican fans go ballistic for every strike. The event is awesome.
Obviously, nobody wants to see anyone get hurt anytime. But these guys are playing baseball. Gavin Lux tore his ACL in a February game — which is actually meaningless, unlike the WBC — and I didn't see anybody calling for the end of spring training. Freak accidents happen in sports.
I'm glad my captain is proud to be representing the United States. Let's go win this thing.