Team USA’s WBC Collapse Sparks Major Criticism of Mark DeRosa
American baseball fans are big mad.
Mark DeRosa may have managed Team USA to the championship game of the World Baseball Classic, but if he paid any attention to public perception throughout the tournament, he had a bad time doing it.
It was, let’s call it, a unique tournament for DeRosa, given that he helped lead his club to victories while taking major fire from baseball fans and media members alike. Team USA’s 3-2 loss to Venezuela in the championship game was only one piece of the puzzle he struggled mightily to put together.
The biggest controversy surrounding DeRosa was self-inflicted when he said that the Americans had already advanced into the knockout round when they very much had not. He claimed he misspoke, but the damage had been done, and the world was convinced he had no idea how the tiebreaker rules worked.
Bryce Harper’s eighth-inning, two-run home run against Venezuela tied things up in the championship game on Tuesday. DeRosa handed the ball over to Garrett Whitlock to begin the ninth inning, which immediately turned into a mistake after a lead-off walk, to which the manager reacted by doing absolutely nothing.
Venezuela put a run on the board, Team USA’s bats remained ice cold with three outs to live, and DeRosa will be remembered as the losing manager of the 2026 World Baseball Classic who made more questionable decisions than emphatic ones and may or may not have understood the rules of the tournament.
And social media isn’t going to let him forget it anytime soon.
Baseball fans across social media took out their pitchforks and did not hold back after Team USA fell to Venezuela.
With its loss to Venezuela, Team USA has now lost back-to-back championship games in the World Baseball Classic after falling to Japan in 2023. USA’s lone gold medal in the WBC came in 2017 after the team blanked Puerto Rico 8-0 in the championship game.
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