usa + wbc = lol
If you're not into sports generally or baseball specifically, you may not know that the World Baseball Classic is happening right now.
For the uninitiated, the WBC is an international baseball competition pitting countries against each other, and, because only a handful of countries take baseball seriously, the tournament only has a handful of real-deal favourites. That list generally includes the United States, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and maybe a few others.
⚾ According to Wikipedia, 73.5% of the players in the Major Leagues are American/were born in the United States. Around 10% of players hail from the Dominican Republic. Venezuela is next, with around 6% of players. That's about 90% of the players in the Majors right there.
🇺🇸 The United States, whose roster boasts superstars including but not limited to Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Cal Raleigh, Bobby Witt Jr., and others, could be outclassing the competition at the WBC, but that's not quite happening. Despite boasting a roster that includes a handful of guys who are definitely going to the Hall of Fame and a handful of other guys who will most likely join them, the Americans may actually get eliminated before the knockout round of the tournament for reasons including but not limited to that they lost to Italy yesterday.
Yes, that Italy. The one with the espresso and the Vespas and the various hard, salty cheeses.
🇮🇹 Italy's team is mostly American Major league players with Italian heritage, but we're not talking the best of the best here. We're talking capable, serviceable guys, but, like, just that.
They weren't supposed to win.
They were supposed to lose. Maybe even by a lot.
And yet, for reasons including but not limited to the fact that the American manager literally thought his team was already through to the knockout round ——
for what it's worth this is overblown and incorrect, because while he didn't know the situation when he gave the interview in the morning he definitely knew it before last night's game started, but in this moment I very much do not want to let the facts get in the way of a good story so I'm leaving it in
—— Italy won 8-6 in one of the biggest upsets in baseball history and, in so doing, made me laugh so hard and for so long that I am going to die a few weeks earlier than I otherwise would have.
The Americans aren't out of it yet, but it merits mentioning that they're not in control of their fate. From ESPN:
Team USA's ticket was not punched -- and its fate now depends on the results of Italy and Mexico's contest Wednesday night, the final game of the WBC's Pool B.
Should Italy win and finish pool play at 4-0, the United States would advance as well. If Mexico wins, however, it would finish at 3-1 along with Italy and the U.S. In that case, the tiebreaker that would determine which two teams advance to the quarterfinals considers runs allowed per out recorded. If the Italy-Mexico game goes nine innings and Mexico wins and scores five or more runs, the U.S. -- the odds-on favorite entering the tournament -- and Mexico would advance. Should Mexico win while scoring four or fewer, it would advance alongside Italy.
The prospect of the United States needing help to get through to the next round of an international baseball competition for which they fielded a team of MLB stars is hilarious, but what's even funnier is that if Mexico wins while scoring four or fewer runs the trolling is going to be eppppppicccccc.
Given that this isn't a sports blog you may ask yourself why I am sharing all of this with you and/or why I spent a few hundred words explaining this thing to you.
When a reporter asked George Mallory why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, Mallory, who died on the mountain, purportedly replied, "Because it's there."
🌲 gonna
🌼 go
🌱 touch back to
🌳 grass work
🌷 now
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