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Podcast: How do we get more U.S. stars to care about the WBC?

Mike Oz

This is The StewPod, our baseball podcast with a dash of pop culture. If you dig the show, please subscribe and review us on iTunes.

The World Baseball Classic is upon us and baseball’s international tournament finds itself in a very familiar place as far as its American participation is concerned: How do we get more U.S. stars involved?

The WBC has proven in the past that the United States — where we call baseball our National Pastime — just doesn’t care as much about winning on the world’s stage as Japan or the Dominican Republic. That goes for fans but also players. Sure, Team USA has put forth a team that’s capable of winning the tournament, but that team is nowhere near as good as it could be. And that remains to be a storyline that hovers above the WBC.

Team USA manager Jim Leyland (left) and catchers Buster Posey (middle) and Jonathan Lucroy. (Getty Images)
Team USA manager Jim Leyland (left) and catchers Buster Posey (middle) and Jonathan Lucroy. (Getty Images)

For this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Jon Morosi, MLB Network’s chief evangelist for the WBC, to get you totally up to speed on some of the tournament’s biggest storylines. We spend a lot of time, however, talking about ways to get more buy-in from MLB’s top stars.

The list of frontline stars who aren’t playing in the tournament includes Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, Kris Bryant, Mookie Betts, Max Scherzer, Noah Syndergaard and countless others. Morosi gives us some of his ideas to drive more engagement to the tournament and hips you to some of the other countries and players to watch out for. (Keep an eye on worldbaseballclassic.com for the full schedule of games on MLB Network over the next couple weeks).

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Elsewhere on the podcast, we’re talking about A-Rod’s reported new relationship, Tim Tebow’s spring debut, fantasy baseball and, a fitting topic on the 20th anniversary of the Notorious B.I.G.’s death, a debate about Tupac vs. Biggie with Bad News Ramen.

Here’s a full rundown of the show:
• Intro
• Who has more to gain: A-Rod or J-Lo?
• Tebowmania
• The WBC so far
• Jon Morosi joins the show.
• How he well in love with the WBC
• Does Team USA have a chance?
• How do we get more American stars to care?
• Other WBC teams to watch for
• Who’s going to be a breakout player?
• Bad News Ramen joins the show and offers his WBC takes
• Am I making bad fantasy baseball decisions?
• Biggie vs. 2pac?

[Music: “Sky is the Limit” by Notorious B.I.G. ft. 112]

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!