Rising status

"This home run is much more important than any other I ever hit. It is even more important than the one I hit off Jeff Weaver in the 12th inning of the fourth game of the World Series to beat the New York Yankees," said Alex Gonzalez. "This one wasn't for a team, this one was for my country and with my people watching." 

That is Alex Gonzalez talking about a homerun he hit in the Caribean Series for Venezuala.  That tells me that all of these people that are dropping out of the WBC are fools, and they will realize that when they are sitting at home watching and cheering their team on enthusiastically, as Nomar Garicapparra said.  This classic will be fun, the next one will be unbeliveable.  With this first tournament, there are  so many unknowns, and the unknowns are making people scared to participate. 

I want Cuba to win this tournament.  This is not a statement of approval of Fidel or anything like that.  I will be a fan of Cuba, so that all of the stars that  are not playing will want to play in the future.  This tournament hopefully someday will have the same status of the FIFA World Cup, and the only way that can happen is if every star, healthy or hurt, wants to play in this tournament.  I believe that it will happen too.  When the players sitting at home watches a country other than their own winning the Classic, I hope that player feels ashamed that he did not try to help.  But more importantly, I hope that all of the high school, college, and other young players realize the mistakes of Nomar Garciapparra, Roy Oswalt, and all of the others that are not playing.  They are the future of the tournament, and if they dream of one day playing in the tournament, then someday this tournament will be huge. 

(p.s. sorry for calling you out like that Roy, but I don't like the fact that you are not playinｇ）