World Baseball Classic

There is a little known sports tournament going on right now – the 2023 World Baseball Classic.  It is essentially the World Cup of baseball – somewhat ironic given that the US has the “World Series” to decide who the best team in baseball is, so I don’t think it is really given much credibility in the US.  Well I only mention this tournament because Great Britain qualified for it for the first time ever.  I didn’t even know we had a national team!  And we play our first games over the weekend – with the first game against the US.  I don’t know if they have a mercy rule in this tournament, and I don’t know what caliber of players will represent the US, but I suspect they will absolutely crush us.  Indeed, I see that Britain is the lowest world ranked team in the tournament (#24).  I imagine it’s a bit like rugby, where the gap between the best countries in the world and the others is absolutely enormous.  But had I known this tournament was going on earlier, I might have gone to Phoenix to catch one of the GB games.  Particularly as going there in person might be the only way I could actually purchase a GB baseball jersey.  I had a look online, and there are absolutely none to be found for sale.  Which is disappointing, I quite fancied getting one.  Mind you, I haven’t seen what they look like yet…!  Been interesting to look up some details of the GB team – I was shocked to see that Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman had previously coached the team.  He was the star player as the closer for the San Diego Padres when I lived in San Diego, and who I’ve actually seen pitch in San Diego many times (albeit a while ago now).  Apparently GB has only ever had a few actual major leaguers in history, none of whom I recognize.  And the one professional player we have now (who is actually Bahamian!), was not allowed to play for GB by his team the Florida Marlins.  Which says a lot about the standing of the tournament!