THERE'S A TON of hemming and hawing in the baseball community these days about the World Baseball Classic, and how no one cares, no one watches, and no one you really care about plays in it anyway.
OK, that last part isn't completely true. Ryan Dempster came out of retirement to help his native Canada, as did retired reliever Eric Gagne. I once saw Whitey Ford come out of retirement in the middle of the game and mow down the heart of a Mets lineup that ended up winning the World Series. But that was an exhibition game and there was a little winking going on afterward that Whitey might have taken some hair product onto the mound with him.