WBC Baseball and the Economy: Back to Fundamentals
Mar 24th, 2009 by Carlos
I stayed up late last night watching the World Baseball Classic championship game between Korea and Japan. Final score: 5–3. Japan took it in 10 innings for their second straight WBC championship.
I’m a huge baseball fan so it was a treat to watch two fundamentally sound baseball teams go out and execute at the highest level. These guys did everything the way I was taught—they play the game the right way. There were so many things that were so refreshing to see, especially when you’re used to watching MLB baseball (bear with me non baseball fans, the pf payoff is coming):
- Bunting a runner over in the first inning
- Disciplined strike zones, deep counts on almost every at bat
- Excited fans and players—you could feel the national pride
- Ichiro’s perfect bunt
- The defense was spectacular—did you see those double plays?
- The cleanup guy for Japan bunted!
As I watched this great spectacle of international baseball, one phrase kept popping into my head: Chicks dig the long ball.
It’s a funny commercial, sure, but it signifies what we value in the sport here in the US. We like to see the ball go far, and that’s why steroids became such a problem in the sport. Homeruns are where the money is, so the players did whatever they could to adapt their game to where the money was.
There’s no money in bunting people over or turning a crisp double play.
The Personal Finance Connection…Finally
The US economy is in dire straits because of greed. We strayed too far from the fundamentals and now we’re paying for it.
I couldn’t help thinking about this as I watched last night’s game and how markedly different it was from the baseball I’m used to watching. And how fundamentally sound it was compared to the MLB.
We’ve been stunned back to reality and hopefully we’ll find our way back to basics (at least for a while). Back to bunting a runner over with nobody out, regardless of who is at bat. Of valuing defense over offense. Of putting the team first, regardless of personal glory.
It’s good to be back. Let’s remember this and try not to forget this time around.
Photo by TheBusyBrain
