"World Still Reeling over U.S. Ouster" reads the headline.
Wow, did I miss something? Are the Americans leaving one of the various nations around the world they've liberated/occupied on our behalf?
Well, no.
It turns out that the world is reeling over the America ouster from the World Baseball Classic, according to the headline on the Globe and Mail's Saturday sports front.
Let the hand-wringing begin.
How come the highest-paid and best-juiced baseball players in the world are sitting on the sidelines while Japan's Ichiro Suzuki and Akinori Otsuka are the only major-leaguers who will play in tonight's final?
Now you see why the Bush-leaguer who occupies the White House and used to own the Texas Rangers didn't want those pesky Cubans entering the tournament in the first place. Now the no-name Havana Reds are playing Japan in the final.
Nothing good could come of this tournament for the Yankees. If they won, they are supposed to and if they lost, it was a disaster.
Sounds familiar doesn't it? Kind of like Canada and Olympic hockey and the moaning and groaning that accompanies every non-gold medal effort.
Of course, a short tournament in which there is a brief preliminary round and, of necessity, a convoluted tie-breaking scheme doesn't necessarily mean the best team wins.
It does mean loads of excitement, however, because everything is at stake just about every time out. In baseball or hockey, a hot pitcher or a hot goalie, can change everything.
There's a pile of jingoistic codswallop that passes for commentary in the media of any country involved in international competition. Look at the Americans beating themselves up over this tournament and then think of the so-called "national debates on the future of our game" that earlier Olympic losses in hockey have engendered.
The world, as we know it, will not end the day that country X beats country Y in a sport that country Y invented.
The fact is that it's a good thing when upstart nations from the other side of the globe start beating us at our own games. It's especially lots of fun when it happens to the overconfident, self-appointed policemen of the world.
The only thing that can save this tournament as far as the Americans are concerned would be the mass defection of the Cuban team after tonight's game.
Then they would all be available to be hired as consultants advising the White House on how to restore the "national pastime" to its former glory.