Some Team USA baseball stars have come under fire after being caught ripping off their medals in the wake of their World Baseball Classic heartbreak.
Aaron Judge and Co were beaten 3-2 by Venezuela in Tuesday night’s final in Miami. It was a huge upset that means the USA has now lost two consecutive finals, with its most recent title coming back in 2017.
In the wake of the loss, Mark DeRosa’s players were awarded their silver medals by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on the field in Miami.
But a number of players including Kyle Schwarber, Bobby Witt Jr and Mason Miller failed to hide their frustration as they removed their medals almost immediately – much to the fury of some fans.
‘The sense of entitlement. What happened to learning how to lose,’ one fan asked.
‘This little trend is really not cool,’ another said. ‘It’s different from being competitive. Which this team was also not.’
Team USA was beaten 3-2 by Venezuela in Tuesday night’s World Baseball Classic final
Despite being heavy favorites, Aaron Judge’s team failed to deliver in Tuesday’s final in Miami
Another fan urged Team USA’s players to follow in the footsteps of Bryce Harper, who thought he had rescued his country in the eighth inning when he hit a two-run homer to tie the game.
‘They could’ve done what Harper did, accept the award and go over and shake hands with the Venezuela players… and congratulate them,’ he said. ‘Respect.’
Many of DeRosa’s players were also criticized for not singing the national anthem ahead of Tuesday’s final.
Venezuela secured a 3-2 win on a historic night in Miami, a city with one of the largest Venezuelan populations in the United States.
‘The people in our country, they are going to celebrate for about a week,’ manager Omar Lopez said.
‘Nobody believed in Venezuela but now we win the championship,’ Eugenio Suarez, who hit the winning double, said through tears on the field. ‘This is a celebration for all the Venezuelan country.’
Moments after their win, President Trump repeated his claims from the day before to make Venezuela America’s 51st state, posting ‘STATEHOOD!!!’ on Truth Social.
The game came just two months after Trump removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by force, taking him back to the United States where he is now in jail in Brooklyn.
