What exactly are we going to see on Saturday? A baseball game, to be sure. What I mean is, what are we going to see?
We live in a country that draws 17,000 anytime our best hockey team... junior hockey team... plays a meaningful game. Heck, when Canada faced the United States for gold at the 2002 Olympics, about one-third of the people living in this country tuned in.
I’m not suggesting ten million Canadians will spend the afternoon in front of the television when our finest baseball club takes on the United States this Saturday. Still, aren’t you curious to see what kind of attention this game draws?
To be fair, Canada isn’t fielding its best team. Rich Harden won’t be there. Nor will Eric Bedard, Ryan Dempster, or Jeff Francis. But a lack of proven major league talent didn’t prevent Canada from a sizeable upset three years ago in Phoenix. That day, the Americans were largely beaten by a group of enthusiastic young prospects like Adam Loewen, Scott Mathieson, and Adam Stern. But did anyone notice?
Saturday’s game is on home turf and has been fairly well promoted. Tickets sales, though unconfirmed, are in the neighbourhood of 40,000. If you’re reading this entry, chances are you’re a baseball fan. Chances are, you’ll be watching or listening. But what about your neighbour? The guy who can’t live without the Leafs, Canadiens, Sens, Oilers, Flames or Canucks? They may not like baseball, but will they recognize an important and meaningful event in another sport?
Oddly, beating the United States may not be to the advantage of the national nine. It would require them to defeat Venezuela one day later, and a loss there would require Canada to defeat the United States a second time. They’ll hit with the other clubs, but when you’re most experienced pitcher is the closer (Jesse Crain), dropping the Americans twice seems like a tall order.
Your turn. Will you watch? Will you go? Do you care? As always, I'd love to hear from you.
An aside: though I had written responses to some of your questions from my last blog, they never made it on to the page. Apparently, those problems have been solved. Still, my apologies to contributors like "Mentono" and "Fan11" as we were unable to publish my return remarks.
