MESA, Ariz. - Spring training can get long and the games a little tedious for players. See: Ryan Braun’s remarks this week about how they “aren’t paid by the hour.”
Braun, the Brewers outfielder, had the option for a much more entertaining time this spring, however, and he’d turned it down. He could have been playing for Team Israel, a fun bunch that surprised the international baseball community by making it to the second round of the World Baseball Classic.
It was a great way to spend the past two weeks, said A’s non-roster catcher Ryan Lavarnway, who was named the MVP of the first-round games in Seoul, South Korea.