LOS ANGELES -- Each time an American team fails to win in international competition, as in the Ryder Cup before 2008 and the World Baseball Classic, which concluded last night, there are periods of bewilderment and even anger.
It is as if the United States collectively has failed, as if dropping a ballgame or not being able to drop a putt is a reflection of society rather than a sporting event.
There's no rule that says America is guaranteed a win, not when in this ever-changing world, other nations are producing athletes good enough to play in the United States as well as against the United States.
The NBA has Latvians, Croats, Brazilians and, of course, Chinese, dare anyone forget Yao Ming. An Australian, Trevor Immelman, won the Masters. An Irishman, Padraig Harrington, won the British Open and PGA Championship. And as we learned Sunday night in the WBC semifinals, Japan -- which defeated the U.S., 9-4 -- has a roster of excellent athletes, some of whom are in the big leagues.
Anyone familiar with Ichiro Suzuki or Daisuke Matsuzaka shouldn't be surprised by the Japanese.
It's been said pitching and defense wins. Japan -- which fefeated South Korea Monday night for the WBC title; the two finalists split four previous 2009 WBC games -- had an ERA of 1.57 after the semifinals. The U.S. had an ERA above 6.
The Asian teams, which began training in January, admittedly might be ahead of the United States. And the United States had injuries to Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Ryan Braun, Chipper Jones and Matt Lindstrom.
Manager Davey Johnson, who led the Mets to the 1986 world championship and the United States to a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics, took flak Monday for leaving starting pitcher Roy Oswalt in the semifinal game too long.
"I thought he was throwing the ball all right,'' Johnson said of Oswalt, who gave up five runs and five hits in the fourth. "I tried to get [John] Grabow up. I didn't think it would take him so long.''
He added, "It took him longer in the cool weather to get loose. But I thought Oswalt was throwing good enough to stay in the game.''
Said Brian Roberts, who homered on Matsuzaka's second pitch of the game: "Baseball may be the national pastime of the United States, but it is played all around the world. And as you can see, it's played very well all over the world.''
Said Jimmy Rollins, who was 4-for-4 in the loss: "We had a lot of fun being an underdog, knowing that we were at somewhat of a disadvantage as far as having time to prepare. It shows the support and passion these other countries have for baseball. In America, we have many sports, so our attention is at whichever sport season is going on."
Mark DeRosa's two-run double in the top of the eighth got the United States within 6-4, but Japan scored three runs in the bottom of the inning on Derek Jeter's two-out throwing error, Suzuki's RBI single and Hiroyuki Nakajima's RBI double that rightfielder Adam Dunn appeared to lose in the lights.
Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda took it pretty hard. He said during Sunday night's game: "Can you believe this? Look at the score. I feel so bad about this. I'm very, very disappointed. We had high hopes. This is the second time we were supposed to win. We taught these people the game."