Edwin Diaz’s unfortunate injury shouldn’t be a stain on the World Baseball Classic

  The infamous trumpets buzzed through LoanDepot Park, and without looking, everybody knew whose time it was. Edwin Diaz made his way to the mound to seal the deal on what would be one of Puerto Rico's best victories in its WBC history. In typical Edwin Diaz fashion, the fastball-slider combination was lethal. Ketel Marte struck out swinging, shortly thereafter Jean Segura did too. Teoscar Hernandez put up a 10-pitch battle but was dotted up on a filthy slider inside.

 Just like that, another chapter in the PR vs. DR rivalry was closed, and team Puerto Rico stormed the field in elation. Edwin Diaz was swarmed by his teammates, but what was meant to be a moment of celebration quickly took a turn for the worst. Diaz went down and everybody held their breaths. He began feeling around his left leg and couldn't put any weight on it. He had to be carried off the field as teammates knelt and watched, and as one could imagine, his brother Alexis Diaz was the most devastated by the injury.

  The incident quickly took over social media with individuals proclaiming the World Baseball Classic "not worth it" and "just exhibition games."

  But that stance couldn't be further from the truth. Countless of the world's best baseball players sign up to represent their countries and display their pride for the name on the front of their jerseys. LoanDepot Park had never been louder than it was yesterday. It means everything to these players and the fans who pack the seats to see their country show out.

 It's also an opportunity for exposure and to bring in new viewers to baseball. Shohei Ohtani, often regarded as the best player in the MLB, has gained over twice the amount of Instagram followers that he had before the WBC. Japan vs Korea amassed a jarring 63 million viewers last week. To imply that this games, in the grand scheme of things, are unimportant or irrelevant, is absolutely ignorant.

 Injuries can happen to anybody, at any given time. Pinning blame on the World Baseball Classic would require a gold medal in mental gymnastics, and also brushing aside every other case of a player getting hurt doing something random. Zach Wheeler was injured putting on his pants. John Wall slipped in his house and tore his achilles. How come it's always the events most difficult to predict that people have a surplus of solutions for? Should the MLB ban pants? Why does John Wall have stairs in his house?

Mike Trout and Mookie Betts took to the podium last night and spoke about what the WBC means to them, and what they felt of Diaz's injury:

"You can always try and place blame on the WBC, but that's just a freak accident that can happen to anybody at any given time." - Mookie Betts.

"It's been a blast. There's risk involved, but you're still playing baseball in spring training."

Said Mike Trout, also implying that an injury is equally as likely to occur during spring training.

  The World Baseball Classic has been a spectacular watch thus far, and if the first round was an indication of anything, it's that there's a lot more fun ahead. Once the knee-jerk reactions cool off, I expect everybody to see the WBC for what it's always been: An emotional, worldwide battle for bragging rights that can't be replaced, nor diminished.