USA beats Mexico by two in soccer and loses to them by one in baseball. What is this world coming to?The better question is who cares? There was no emotion from the underachieving USA squad after scoring one run and managing just three hits against Mexico’s eight pitchers in a 2-1 loss in the World Baseball Classic Thursday at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
The Mexican team took a victory lap as the fans in southern California cheered them on.
Oh yeah, both teams were eliminated from the tournament, but you couldn’t tell.
This loss is the final nail in the coffin putting baseball to rest as America’s game and the game that used to be our nation’s pastime.
USA’s hopes for advancing to the semifinals were kept alive when South Korea beat Japan 2-1 Wednesday, giving America the tiebreaker in the group, needing a win over Mexico to advance to the semifinals.
USA also just barely made it out of the first round, getting help from a Mexico win after USA lost to Canada.
Now you will hear all kinds of excuses for the loss; the short tournament format and the rusty spring training, but all teams had the same problems to face and with no where near the same star power as the Americans.
The United States finishes the first World Baseball Classic with a 3-3 record with losses to North American neighbors Canada and Mexico.
The USA team only had one offensive outburst, a 17-0 win over South Africa, and scored only 16 runs in the other five games.
The Classic was put into place to generate excitement for baseball and it has done that for just about every country in the event, except in the U.S.
Any national competition has extra meaning when these two neighboring countries face.
And that was no different when USA beat Mexico 2-0 in the round of 16 in the 2002 World Cup.
The win was USA’s 11th in 50 meetings and only its third in World cup matches against Mexico in 21 games.
Once upon a time each of these nations used to dominate their native sport. Mexico continually beat the US in soccer while USA held a firm grasp in baseball talent.
Those days are over as the competition and rivalry between these two nations heats up. USA knocked Mexico out of the World Cup and now Mexico has returned the favor, sending the favored United States out of the World Baseball Classic.
One reply on “Mexico and USA rivalry heating up”
Don’t forget… the mexican fans cheering “Osama, Osama!” during a soccer match in Mexico City this year. I think that helps build a rivalry.
As far as baseball goes, I really think the Americans were trying to get out of there with out any injuries. Don’t tell me you can’t hit Oliver Perez, a “power” pitcher who can barely get into the low 90’s. Oh well.