The rosters are stocked with adopted mercenaries. Nick Punto is from California, but he signed on with Italy. Alex Rodriguez grew up in New York and Florida but wanted to play for the Dominicans. And for the last 25 years, Delmonico has lived in Knoxville and Tallahassee, neither of which happen to be in Holland.
Despite a lack of players who know how to find the Heineken Brewery, columnists from Albany to Amsterdam called the Netherlands triumph "amazing" and "inspiring." ESPN also ramped up the hype. SportsCenter compared the Netherlands game with other great upsets like the "Miracle on Ice" and that time David beat Goliath.
The next night, I turned on ESPN ready to hear more breathless hyperbole about the Netherlands, but that never happened because the happy, weepy Dutch got shut out. Apparently, after David beat Goliath, Puerto Rico came along and tanned David's hide. The Bible skipped that part.
No biggie. If we've learned anything about the WBC, it's that there are plenty of international storylines to trumpet. Between Delmonico and Tommy Lasorda's crazed, xenophobic, baseball-and-apple pie rant last week, the WBC has been a great success in the artificial patriotic pride department. There's nothing like a little flag waving to get the media's attention. Failing to display your country's colors also works.
Soon, some ESPN reporter will accuse Hugo Chavez of not wearing a Venezuelan flag pin on his lapel. It will be a great story.
In honor of the Sixers' final game at the Spectrum this evening, I can't resist outlining my personal top-five Spectrum moments (post 1977 only):
