The Internationals

When it comes to baseball, I root American.  There's so much international influence in baseball, but I still rooted for the Americans in the WBC.  I actually watched all of the WBC - not many folks can say that.  And yet I also speak Spanish, which opens up many more doors in the land of 'Fandom'.  Some days I speak more Spanish than English.  But I still love watching the guys who grew up playing on the same ragged diamonds that I played on.  Not that I have a problem with the Latino players - there's quite a few who I follow and pull for; but I still like to get behind the guys who came from where I came from.

And soccer?  Forget about it.  I love the American international team almost as much as I love the Blazers (that's a lot).  When the US played Mexico this last summer, I abandoned my Mexican-American heritage and cursed all the players in the green jerseys.  And I cursed in general.  The Americans lost.

However, when it comes to my beloved basketball, I love to root for the internationals.  And I'm blessed to have a couple of players on my team from across the pond in Rudy Fernandez and Nic Batum.  The international game is so unassuming.  It's polished and honed, but it's still got a lot of flair.  And the NBA has taken notice that there is a lot of rising stock in other countries.  In this past year's draft, 6 international players were taken in the first round.  6 players out of 30.  That's saying something.  Out of all the colleges, and all the press and hype that the college tourney gets, 6 players still managed to get ahead of those other kids and into the first round. 

I must have an affinity for the French though.  I don't know why.  But Nic Batum just caught my eye right off the bat.  This year, Rodrigue Beaubois became the next in a line of Frenchmen (well Guadeloupe, actually) to enter the NBA ranks.  The kid will have a good chance to develop in Dallas.  Getting trained by Jason Kidd probably doesn't hurt.  Oh, and he gets to play alongside another pretty famous international, Dirk Nowitzki.  The luck of the draw I guess.  The kid even got a flag auto in his rookie year.  Even the card companies know that the flag in the card will sell as well, if not better, than the signature.