Patriotism is a prominent sentiment in the World Baseball Classic

Dontrelle Willis is a fairly professional baseball player; she has played in the World Series, pitched in an All-Star Game and nearly won a Cy Young Award in her brief but brilliant career. But, he has never played for his country yet, but that comes to an end when the Marlins pitcher will play for Team USA. He will take the field against Mexico in a first-round game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in Phoenix.

Playing for your country means much more than playing. You have to play hard; you have to make people proud, that’s why patriotism takes over this World Baseball Classic event. Miguel Cabrera is another example of an MLB player who will be experiencing some of these feelings playing for his country Venezuela in his WBC debut this afternoon wondering what it would be like to lead his home.

Yet for all that patriotism, Cuba is one of the teams that is committed to putting on a good show. Their record of three Olympic championships and 25 World Cup wins clearly makes them the best amateur team, but they’ve never played a top-pro team, aside from a couple of displays against the Baltimore Orioles seven years ago.