PUERTO RICO– The world awaits the 2023 World Baseball Classic with the upmost excitement. Yeah, right! It happens every four years and unlike the Olympics, the buildup is almost non-existent. The United States team is the biggest culprit along with its partner, the New York Yankees.
Why have an event like this if Major League Baseball is okay with not supplying its best players for the world to see? On top of that, one has to ask why they would hold this event in the month of March when players are getting prepared for their respective seasons to start?
2022’s best player Aaron Judge, is staying put in Tampa as his New York Yankees ballclub acts like it was his decision not to participate. Judge’s teammate outfielder Harrison Bader, also informed team Israel that he will be a no-go. Are the Yankees expecting Bader to be the second coming of Mickey Mantle because of his power house display in last falls playoffs? Bader has become a media attraction since coming to the Bronx from the St. Louis Cardinals in the questionable trade for pitcher Jordon Montgomery. He’s been a public relations dream, being seen everywhere on print and television during this off-season.
So why stop there? No Judge, no Bader, no Gerrit Cole… and what about the other 300 million dollar man Giancarlo Stanton? Are the Yankees afraid of an injury risk to their mega million dollar investments? If that’s the case, then why sign them to these ridiculous multi-year deals in the first place? Since baseball is the livelihood for these players, then let them play in this worldly event.
Over across the bridge in the borough of Queens the diverse N.Y. Mets are being represented in the WBC by a total of 9 players. The team with the highest payroll is blessing their players to go display their talents for the world to see. Do the Yankees think that by keeping their so-called super-duper stars at bay they’ll have an advantage to be the last team standing in October, or is it November?
Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes says to hell with that and will showcase his talents with Team USA. Cortes, who is arguably the real ace of Yankees’ World, will do his funkmaster thing on the mound and eventually command the same bucks as his teammates. Those same teammates that the Yankees are obviously saying, No to the #WBC.
MLB needs to have a tighter stitch on their own balls and tell whomever runs the Yankees to at least let Judge play. If they stay ignorant on this situation, they might as well pull the plug on this sham event.
