Part of me relates to Mark DeRosa, the MLB Network host who doubles as manager of Team USA at the World Baseball Classic.
I’m a travel sports parent, you see, and the tournament brackets always leave me far beyond befuddled. I’ve been at softball or volleyball tournaments with my daughter, having no idea who we’re playing next or why.
Tie-breakers? Don’t even get me started. They might as well be written in Sanskrit.
Thing is, I’m not managing arguably the greatest baseball team ever assembled. DeRosa is. I can just ask another parent to clarify the rules. DeRosa kind of needs to know them — and the fact that he did not know them going into Team USA’s game against Italy on Tuesday could haunt him for the rest of his life.
This all might be forgotten if Team USA gets the help it now needs and advances to the quarterfinals, but that is no sure bet. At this particular moment, DeRosa’s blunder ranks with the worst international coaching malfunctions of all-time.
Indeed, it’s right up there with Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov pulling star goaltender Vladislav Tretiak after the first period of what became the Miracle On Ice. The other one that springs to mind is Team Canada coach Marc Crawford leaving Wayne Gretzky — then with the most goals in NHL history — out of the shootout against the Czechs in the 1998 Winter Olympics (see, the Penguins aren’t the only ones who screw up shootouts).
It might even make Pete Carroll’s decision to pass at the goal line — instead of handing off to Marshawn Lynch — look like a stroke of genius. At least Carroll knew the rules.
Here’s how the DeRosa Debacle unfolded: Earlier in the day, he was talking to his “buddies” on MLB Network’s “Hot Stove,” when he said, “We want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.”
His ticket wasn’t punched. But believing it was, DeRosa rested the likes of Cal Raleigh, Bryce Harper and Alex Bregman and watched his team fall behind 8-0 in what became a stunning, 8-6 loss to an Italian team managed by former Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli. (This was Italy’s version of the Miracle on Ice — “il miracolo sul ghiaccio” — leading me to wonder if Al Pacino might soon be starring as Cervelli at a theater near you.)
The Americans will still advance if Italy beats Mexico Wednesday night. You don’t want to know what needs to happen if Mexico wins, leaving it tied with the U.S. and Italy with records of 3-1 in Pool B. Only two can advance.
I read the tie-breaker rules off the WBC website this morning and had horrible flashbacks to softball travel tournaments where nobody could figure out why our team wasn’t in the championship. Or why it was.
I swear, this is the actual second tie-breaker rule: “the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied.”
Is there a Sanskrit translator in the house?
And couldn’t they just have used run differential?
According to The Athletic, the U.S. will advance if either Italy wins or Mexico “wins a high-scoring game while allowing or scoring at least six runs.” Others are reporting different numbers, but this is what you get when you lose to Italy.
Apparently, Team USA also had a late night after the win over Mexico on Monday. DeRosa told reporters the next morning, “There’s some guys dragging today.”
According to a tweet from longtime baseball reporter Jose de Jesus Ortiz, the team bus didn’t leave the ballpark until 12:30 a.m., as players and staff “stayed up telling stories and celebrating after the 5-3 victory over Mexico.”
If they fail to advance, this suddenly becomes a story DeRosa and his team will never want to tell again — and will never hear the end of.