U.S. players staying classy at WBC. Will White House do the same?

MIAMI — We view sports as a way to share lessons about sportsmanship, teamwork and respect for others. When the Dodgers visited the White House last year, Clayton Kershaw gave a short but moving speech about the “selflessness and humility” that laid the foundation for a championship.

“This organization exemplifies what it means to come together for a greater purpose,” Kershaw said that day, “and to represent something much bigger than themselves.”

He added: “I hope the 2024 Dodgers can serve as an inspiration to many as they have been to me, not just in sports but in life, remembering to put others before ourselves. That moves a team and a society forward.”

At the World Baseball Classic, Team USA excelled in sharing these values. If the United States wins the WBC championship on Tuesday, when no result other than victory would have been satisfactory, the team will explode with joy.

Then the team will have to wait and see what values ​​the White House might share if it chose to commemorate the championship.

When the United States men’s hockey team won Olympic gold last month, President Trump welcomed the team to Washington and said he would present goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

At that time, the White House TikTok account had already published a video doctored using artificial intelligence. The video purported to show Team USA star Brady Tkachuk taunting Canadians by saying, “They booed our national anthem, so I had to go out and teach these maple syrup eaters a f—ing lesson.”

Tkachuk, the Ottawa Senators captain, said the video was “clearly fake.”

Tkachuk said, “That’s not my voice. That’s not what I was saying. I would never say that. That’s not who I am…That would never come out of my mouth, and I never had that thought.”

If the United States wins on Tuesday, a visit to the White House would be unlikely, at least before the end of the season. Players are expected to disperse Wednesday and return to spring training camps in Arizona and Florida.

But who knows what the White House social media team might have in mind? During the war with Iran, the White House drew criticism for a series of social media posts intercutting video footage of bombs being dropped with video games and clips from movies and sports, including a 27-second spot featuring home runs by Barry Bonds, Cecil Fielder, Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa amid explosions.

“Pure American domination”, we can read in the caption.

Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) said: “War is not a joke. It is not a game. … Is it too much to ask the Commander in Chief to take seriously his most solemn and sacred responsibility?”

All-American relief pitcher Griffin Jax, an Air Force Reserve captain, missed large parts of two minor league seasons while on active duty at Cape Canaveral. He hasn’t seen a fight, but he knows more about it than most people who have, so I asked him what he thought of the video.

He hadn’t seen it, so we watched it on my phone. He laughed. He in no way considered this disrespectful. For him, the real fight should not be likened to a video derby full of bombs.

“Two different things,” Jax said. “But it’s everything that happens behind the scenes that allows us to go play baseball.”

Kershaw said he had not seen the video and had no interest in doing so. He said he was aware that Dodgers fans were divided on whether the team should visit the White House again this year, but he said he looked forward to it.

“I went there when President Biden was in office. I’m going there when President Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “For me, it’s just about going to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

American pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in an exhibition game against the Colorado Rockies on March 4.

(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

Sport also teaches how to respond to adversity and how to accept defeat. The Dominican Republic lost to the United States on Sunday, by one point, the final coming down to a third strike that looked a lot like a ball.

Albert Pujols, the manager of the Dominican team and an American citizen for two decades, could have castigated the referee for this botched decision.

“I don’t want to focus on the last pitch. … I’m disappointed with the way the game ended. I won’t criticize any of that,” Pujols said. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

When the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s much-touted tariffs were illegal, the president not only expressed disappointment, but attacked the justices who ruled against him as “fools,” “lapdogs” and a “disgrace to our nation.”

There is no one right way to play baseball. One of the enduring stories of the WBC: Americans should have more fun, which confuses exuberance with passion. The Latin teams play with more flair, which is great. The United States is channeling its professionalism and inner fire, which is also great.

On Sunday, Bryce Harper explained that every culture can celebrate baseball in its own way and said he couldn’t emulate Fernando Tatis Jr. even if he wanted to.

“I don’t know how to dance,” Harper said.

On Monday, at the end of a batting practice session, Harper swung his bat toward a pitcher’s empty mound.

“I’m having so much fun,” he told his teammates, with a mischievous smile.

Each culture also finds inspiration in its own way. In the United States, sports and the military have long been linked, for better or worse.

U.S. pitcher Paul Skenes heads to the dugout during a game against Mexico in the World Baseball Classic on March 9.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

Jax and teammate Paul Skenes, who both attended the Air Force Academy, invited the school’s baseball team to one of the WBC games. Before a game, U.S. manager Mark DeRosa invited Robert O’Neill, one of the members of the Navy Seals team that killed Osama bin Laden, to address the team.

“You never want it to be lost on why you’re doing this, whatever the reason,” DeRosa said. “And a lot of people, as Paul Skenes told me when he signed up, ‘I want to do this for every serviceman and every woman who protects our freedom,’ and that’s why we carry the United States on our chest.”

We cherish the flyovers before big games. We honor veterans between innings. We take off our caps for the national anthem.

Trump did not remove his baseball cap as he saluted the flag-draped remains of the first U.S. service members killed in the Iran war.

And after Venezuela beat Italy on Monday to advance to the championship game against the United States, Trump posted on social media, but not to congratulate Venezuela. Two months after ordering an invasion of the country and arresting its leader, Trump posted: “Good things are happening to Venezuela lately! I wonder what this magic is for? STATE, #51, ANYONE?”

It turns out the United States still practices diplomacy and good sportsmanship, at least here. The men in red, white and blue uniforms are first class.