Chris Archer isn’t taking being selected to Team USA’s World Baseball Classic roster lightly.
The 28-year-old Tampa Bay Rays pitcher expressed optimism about getting selected for the 2017 tourney, calling the opportunity a dream.
“I know not everybody gets asked, not everybody gets invited. It’s been one of my dreams to do since it started in 2006,” Archer told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. “I was in high school and I remember watching it saying one day it would be really, really cool.
“Since we don’t have the Olympics this is basically the Olympics of our sport. It’s the pinnacle of international play for our sport. It’s all major leaguers. It’s highly competitive. I’m stoked to be a part of it, and representing USA baseball.”
Baseball is actually returning to the Olympics in 2020, but as the summer games fall during the MLB regular season, the biggest names in the sport are normally unable to compete for their countries. That’s one of the reasons baseball fell out of the Olympic rotation after 2008.
the WBC was created to fill that void, intended to become a World Cup for baseball. More stars have played, thanks to the event’s spring calendar slot, but so far players from other countries have taken more pride in competing. Manny Machado has already committed to the Dominican Republic, for example. Archer’s attitude is refreshing, but it remains to be seen if it’ll be the new standard; Mike Trout and Bryce Harper have already withdrawn from consideration for Team USA, for example.
Maybe Archer’s enthusiasm is a sign that more players are going to be excited to join up this time around.
[theScore]
