Teixeira Injured Swinging in “Classic”. WBC 1, MLB 0 Or Is It The Other Way Around?
As I listened to Sunday’s spring training game between the Yankees and Red Sox on WEEI via my MLB app I was intrigued during an otherwise drab 5-2 Yankees win when Boston broadcasters Joe Castiglione and Dave O’Brien interviewed Sox GM Ben Cherington and Yanks GM Brian Cashman during back-to-back innings. For both GMs, the conversation, steered by Castiglione and O’Brien, eventually turned to the World Baseball Classic.
March 2, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; New York Yankees batting coach Kevin Long (left) talks with first baseman Mark Teixeira (25) prior to the game against the Detroit Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Cherington went first. While diplomatically sidestepping any direct criticism of the event, he was nonetheless steadfast in his support for the dog and pony show as “good for the promotion of baseball” but equally candid about his concern for players Shane Victorino and Alfredo Aceves, both of whom had chosen to participate. When asked the same question an inning later Cashman said, “What did Ben say?” When O’Brien summarized Cherington’s remarks Cashman said almost verbatim the same thing. Well if I didn’t know better you’d think all GMs, including these two, had been coached by Bud Selig’s goons?
In a continuation of my personal running feud with MLB over the World Baseball Classic this just in. Mark Teixeira injured himself at the World Baseball Classic.
"When I first heard the news a creamy froth appeared on my lips, my pupils dilated and I could sense a kill."
Upon further research I learned that Teixeira was diagnosed with a strained wrist after some swings in the batting cage. He’s expected to be sidelined a week to 10 days and will be out of the tournament.
The silver lining for the Yankees and I believe MLB in general is that because of the injury New York exercised their right to yank their injured first baseman from the tournament and get his butt back to New York where he’ll be evaluated on Wednesday by Yankees’ team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad and Dr. Melvin Rosenwasser. I want Teixeira healthy. I want him in the Yankee’s lineup on April 1 so I can love it if he does ever so poorly against my Red Sox. That’s what baseball is about, not the manufactured contrivance that is the World Baseball Classic.
When you come down to it there’s nothing classic about it. By dictionary definition classic is “judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.” World Baseball Classic? Phhfftttt!!!!
I said in an earlier piece on the tournament, “..compelling evidence that those who participate in the WBC and indeed all of Major League Baseball as a whole are statistically less prone to being injured in years when there is a WBC tournament. That is unless that one big injury that’s lurking out there is your franchise guy on your team.”
Like a moth into a flame,
I’m hypnotized,
And like a stone,
I’m paralyzed cause I can’t look away,
– Break The Spell, Daughtry