After reading Sean Collier's column, "U.S. influence may hurt baseball classic," Feb. 28, I wondered if Collier watches baseball at all, because to any reasonably educated baseball fan, there is no question that the American team's chances are no better than those of any other team.

Venezuela, Japan, Dominican Republic and even Cuba all have realistic chances of derailing the U.S. team. A lot of Americans think there will be plenty of competition for the Americans in the World Baseball Classic (WBC).

Collier also missed the point of the WBC entirely. The contest was designed to promote baseball as a sport in the international community. Major League Baseball (MLB) designed and is producing the WBC to increase the marketability of the sport. So, yes, there are monetary interests for the U.S., but I'm sure that MLB would not be too disappointed if the U.S. lost. There's nothing that would kill this competition faster than if the U.S. just ran over the international teams causing foreign fans embarrassment.