USA-Dominican Republic will be WBC clash of uber-talented teams with very different styles
To prepare for its quarterfinal game Friday, Team USA brought in guest speaker Robert J.O’Neill, a former SEAL Team Six member who was part of the unit that killed Osama bin Laden. Among the Team Dominican Republic celebratory props is a dumbbell that is wrapped with plantains, which is often lifted following home runs that turn ballparks into nightclubs. One team is serious.
One team is, well, silly.One team is singularly focused on winning.
One team wants to win but is determined to have fun along the way. It will be a clash not just of stars but of cultures when the Americans and Dominicans face off Sunday night in Florida for a World Baseball Classic semifinal. “I know the fans definitely love [the Dominican flair], but I try not to look at what other teams are doing, what other people are doing,” Aaron Judge, captain of Team USA and the Yankees and a superstar who plays with more professionalism than joy, told reporters Friday night.“I’ll focus on what we got here.
We got a special group of guys that love to play this game.They’re excited to be in this room.
I know how they’re all honored to be in this room.They’re not taking it for granted. “So it’s exciting seeing what the D.R.
is doing, and it’s been fun watching those games and seeing what’s going on.I think everybody in [the clubhouse] is excited to get there and be a part of it.” “There” is Miami, which is located in the United States but merely technically.
South Florida might not pay much attention to the Marlins or MLB, but it does love baseball and the Dominican Republic.A country on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with a population the size of Ohio and the physical size of West Virginia routinely produces many of the best baseball players in the world. The Americans, who played their group-stage and quarterfinal games with the fans in their corner in Houston, will be entering enemy territory. “I expect to be the away team, for sure, but that’s what ...