By Rich Herrera

I went to my very first WBC game tonight at Petco Park.  I was impressed.  The play with crisp and the emotions were high for the opening of the second round between The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

I spent some time sitting in the stands and watched the crowd hoot and holler and scream and yell and clap for every pitch.  The 16,367 made as much noise was 40,000 fans  I can’t wait to see when the home team takes the field on Wednesday in San Diego.  Fans clad in red white and blue should be a plenty at Petco Park.

My biggest random thought is the too cool for school attitude that I have seen from many around baseball here in the states is weak.  It’s kind of like college football talking heads and writers who complain there are too many bowl games.  Yes, I think the bowl season goes on and on, and even though I am a college football fan I don’t watch all of them.  But I also know from going to and covering all these bowl games that there is a kid playing his last football game ever.  There are some that will go on to do something after college and very few of them end up in the NFL.  So for that All-Pac12 player that doesn’t go on to the NFL and ends up in Canton that trip to the Holiday Bowl means something to him and his family.  So who am I to belittle his last fleeting moment on the field.

I feel the same way about the WBC.  To the players playing this is a big stage, it means something when you wear your nation’s colors and are representing your country.  The players tonight feel that national pride this means something to them and I respect that.  When TEAM USA takes the field I will get a chill up my spine and will feel emotions as they play our national anthem.  Am I a romantic, am I old-fashioned, am I out of touch?  I don’t know who gets to decided what is important and what is not.  For my money, people are too cool for their own good and try to hard not to care about anything.  Maybe we should take a step back and think about what really matters in your heart instead of trying to look cool for the snarky guy next to you.