Trea Turner owns the ‘meaningless baseball’ crowd around WBC

Trea Turner hitting a grand slam in the WBC showed why this is far from ‘meaningless baseball’ but his comments after the fact laughed at the thought.

On Saturday night, Trea Turner became an American sports hero. With Team USA trailing Venezuela 7-5 in the eighth inning of the World Baseball Classic quarterfinal, the new Philadelphia Phillies shortstop delivered when it mattered most.

Turner’s go-ahead grand slam sent the Miami crowd into a frenzy and proved to be the winning swing of the bat for the United States, pushing them to the semifinals where they’ll meet Cuba. But it was Turner who singlehandedly provided all of the fireworks and heroics necessary for that to happen.

It was after the game, though, when he delivered a deathblow to any of the WBC critics who have called the international tournament “meaningless” in the wake of the Edwin Diaz injury.

Speaking after the game, Turner called the grand slame the “biggest hit” of his career and added that the crowd was the loudest he’s ever been in front of.

Trea Turner calls WBC grand slam the ‘biggest hit’ of his career

Doesn’t sound quite like meaningless baseball to me.

Many players have stepped up vocally in support of the WBC after the Diaz injury — and now the Jose Altuve injury — have brought criticism on the tournament as being not worth the risk for MLB players given the potential health costs if they were to get injured. All of the people and players pushing back on that, though, have talked about pride in playing for their country, the atmosphere created by the fans, and more that make the World Baseball Classic special.

Turner exemplified that on Saturday night, particularly with his comments. This is a World Series winner and highly successful veteran player saying that a game-winning grand slam in this tournament was the biggest hit of his life. That should tell you all you need to know about where the players stand on this tournament.

Sure, there is risk to players participating in the WBC. But to call it meaningless is to ignore everything sitting right in front of you during this tournament, with Trea Turner’s grand slam at the forefront.