Adam Amin

I appreciate it more than anything else because all these players that take time away from their spring training run-up to join this team, I look around at other countries and other players from other countries and seeing guys who have British backgrounds

backgrounds and and there you know their parents were born in the u k like harry ford is the catcher for the nationals uh... to see players in brazil who are construction workers in their off time and have like regular jobs and still play for the brazilian national team of baseball team that doesn't have a tremendous history it's only been at the w bc a couple of times but they have this appreciation for one to represent their country there there's a great story about an electrician for check you know who struck out show hey o'connie

and the Japanese fans gave him a standing ovation.

They brought him out to the field at the Tokyo Dome, and the Japanese fans gave him a standing ovation.

This guy's going to go back to Czechia and go back to his job as an electrician.

These are...

I know some of these stories can sound like they're tongue-in-cheek, but these are real opportunities for a lot of people around the world, not just the superstars in Major League Baseball that we've come to know representing their countries.

I think that's more what it's about.

I don't necessarily like connecting it to other peripheral things, but I do think the pride in country and the kind of unification of team to represent a country with an identity I think is really, really cool.

You get that a lot from the non-American players and their fan bases especially, but it was interesting.

I'm sure you've seen or heard Bryce Harper's comments about not having the Olympics be a baseball thing in 2028, even though the games are in Los Angeles.

Did you take that as more of a dig at the world stage as far as the World Baseball Classic was, or is this just a guy wishing he could win Olympic gold?

No, I took it as a guy who wants to continue to push baseball on a global stage.

I think this is a big deal for Bryce Harper.

And I think he knows that the Olympics are still the Olympics, you know, the, the impact that, you know, we, we, we felt during those two weeks in Milan for the winter Olympics.

And, and you know how much I've always felt that, I don't know if you guys do too, but I always felt that the summer games had a little bit more accessibility for a lot of fans around the world.

Um,

just because they're probably a little bit more familiar with the sports and they're more comfortable with them.

And I think the U.S., you know, you look at the Olympics and it's not, the competition is greater here at the WBC.

You know, it's like the World Cup in soccer relative to playing for the Olympic gold in soccer.