Golden treatment
If you've flipped on ESPN recently to find baseball games, no, those aren't spring training exhibitions. It's the World Baseball Classic and the boys in red, white and blue are fighting to take back their rightful place among baseball's elite. Sound familiar? It should. It was the same angle assigned to USA's gold medal-winning basketball team, the "Redeem Team."
That team dribbled their mantra; Like out of the Musketeer novel -- all one for one and one for ball, or something like that. We were told that these superstars, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade, put their individual egos aside, allowing them to focus on bringing the gold medal back stateside.
Now, the baseball team and those covering them are taking these cues and we're hearing the same kind of anecdotes to explain why the players have come out bats blazing against Canada and Venezuela. Superstars Derek Jeter and Jimmy Rollins aren't concerned with who gets the start at shortstop; Adam Dunn, delivering clutch power-hitting, describes a "playoff atmosphere"; Red Sox Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis diving in the infield and grinding out at-bats; and NL East enemies Chipper Jones, David Wright and Shane Victorino put down regular-season quarrels for the good of the cause.
No, this is not the "Dream Team" of baseball. There aren't a lot of "names" to pencil in the lineup card. It's just a group of solid players trying to put something special together. And if the "Redeem Team" showed us anything, that might be better for the country and better for the game.
