Dontrelle Willis is quite a professional baseball player; he has participated in the World Series, pitched in an All-Star Game and nearly won a Cy Young Award in his brief but brilliant career. But, he has still never played for his country, but that comes to an end when the Marlins pitcher will play with Team USA take the field against Mexico in a first-round game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic in Phoenix.

Playing for your country means a lot more than just playing. You have to play hard; you have to make the people feel proud that is why patriotism takes up on this World Baseball Classic event. Miguel Cabrera is another example of an MLB player who will be experiencing some of these feelings playing for his country, Venezuela, in its WBC debut this afternoon wondering what it would be to lead his home.

For all that patriotism, though, Cuba is one of the teams that is compromised to make a good show. Their history of three-time Olympic championships and 25-time World Cup wins clearly makes them the best amateur team, but they have never played a team of top professionals aside from a pair of exhibitions against the Baltimore Orioles seven years ago.

Cathy Jones writes on sports betting and gambling one of the fastest growing online industries and she is one of the top senior article writers for http://www.envivosports.com. Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.

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