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TOKYO — There are Americans who love the World Baseball Classic. One of them is here at the Tokyo Dome this week, managing China.
"It's a wonderful event," Philadelphia Phillies catching coach John McLaren said Thursday.
Another one is here this week, working for MLB Network.
"When we lost [in 2006], I cried," said Buck Martinez, who managed Team USA that year in the first WBC. "It broke my heart."
But when Team USA lost in 2006, most American baseball fans shrugged. When the Americans lost again in 2009 and 2013, shrugs would have been preferable to the total indifference shown by most.