Daily Jolt: Don't Bet Against Team USA

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

They are supposed to be out of game shape, at the very least. This is, after all, their Spring Training. Worse yet, they are supposed to be spoiled millionaires, indifferent or nonplussed at the honor of playing for one's country, participating in the World Baseball Classic on a lark as they prepare for the major league season.

At least, that was the story we were fed during the last WBC in 2006, when the U.S. bowed out in embarrassing fashion in the second round of the tournament after losses to Mexico and Korea. It was the story we were about to be fed all over again with Team USA three outs from elimination against Puerto Rico Tuesday night.

The players that actually deigned to don the stars and stripes this time around started dropping like flies a few days before -- some elbow stiffness here, a strained oblique there and a host of other assorted tweaks decimated the roster. Manager Davey Johnson missed part of a game -- an 11-1 shellacking at the hands of Puerto Rico that put the U.S. on the brink of elimination -- to be at his stepson's wedding, then talked of forfeit if he didn't have enough healthy players to field a team.

Team USA talked a good game coming into the WBC. Chipper Jones, one of the few holdovers from the 2006 team, decried the number and size of egos in the U.S. clubhouse last time around and claimed it would be different in '09. But everything from the manager's behavior to the performance on the field seemed to indicate little progress had been made, particularly as the Americans edged closer to elimination against Puerto Rico.

It all seemed like the same old story.

Then Shane Victorino singled. After a grueling six-pitch battle with Puerto Rican reliever J.C. Romero, Brian Roberts, the injured Dustin Pedroia's replacement on the squad, followed with one of his own. And before you could say Youkilis, David Wright was standing at the plate with one out, the bases loaded and Team USA down by a run.

Wright did things backwards. He took an absolute cookie for a strike in a 2-0 count, leaving the bat on his shoulder as an 89 mph fastball sailed across the inner half of the plate. The next pitch flew in almost at his ankles. This was not a good pitch to hit. Wright reached for it anyway, golfing a soft liner to right field that dropped in, propelling the U.S. into the semifinals and setting off a melee on the field in Miami.

Spoiled millionaires? Kevin Youkilis made off with Wright's batting helmet in the ensuing celebration. Adam Dunn, a guy who goes by the not-so-ironic moniker of Big Donkey, jumped on top of the dogpile. Those spoiled millionaires were celebrating in a fashion that would have made any Little League World Series entrant proud.

And OK, much like Wright's game-winning at-bat, Team USA has done things a little backwards. They never had their best group of players to begin with (Tim Lincecum, Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, Jonathan Papelbon, etc. elected not play) and then some of the guys who accepted an invite backed out at the last minute (Grady Sizemore, Joe Nathan, Brian Fuentes). The team that finally hit the field in Toronto quickly qualified for the second round by winning their first two games. Then they lost two of their next three and stood on the precipice of another humiliating exit.

But instead of grinding their bats to sawdust and being consumed by the moment, or packing it in because they know the general sporting public isn't quite sure what to make of this event and is wholly distracted filling out their brackets this week, the Americans came through when it counted.

If you're truly a baseball fan, how can you yawn at that?

Team USA isn't perfect. Neither is the Classic. It probably never will be. But that doesn't mean it doesn't matter. It doesn't mean we shouldn't crack a smile at the jubilation of a group of millionaires playing mostly for the love of their country or stand up and cheer when one of them delivers in the clutch.

The Americans are heading to Los Angeles, presumably with Jake Peavy and Roy Oswalt ready to go in the single-elimination phase of the tournament. The players representing the U.S. might not be the best possible collection of talent this country has to offer, but it's still the best in the WBC.

Even if they hit some bumps in the road, don't bet against them.