Juan Soto pulled a Nathan MacKinnon after losing to Team USA
Juan Soto stood at the podium after the Dominican Republic’s 2-1 loss to Team USA on Sunday night and told reporters that his team showed the world who the best team in baseball is.
If that sounds familiar it is because Nathan MacKinnon said essentially the same thing after Team USA swept Canada in Olympic hockey gold medal games, men and women.
MacKinnon insisted the better team lost. Juan Soto looked at a 2-1 defeat and decided the scoreboard was wrong. Same energy. Same problem.
Juan Soto and Nathan MacKinnon are both sore losers
The Dominican Republic was a genuinely spectacular team in this tournament. Fourteen home runs. Fifty-one runs scored through five games. A roster loaded with nine players who received MVP votes last season.
Fernando Tatis Jr. was electric. Junior Caminero was must-watch baseball. Austin Wells was out there feeling more Dominican every day and making it work. That team was real and they were fun and they made this entire tournament better for being in it.
Unfortunately, none of that changes the result…
Team USA beat them 2-1 in a semifinal game and is going to the championship. The scoreboard does not grade on talent or entertainment value or how many home runs you hit in pool play. It counts wins and losses. That is it. That has always been it.
The MacKinnon comparison is the right one and not in a flattering way.
Canada showed up to a baseball game in silver medal hockey jerseys as a motivational tactic. MacKinnon showed up to the podium after a gold medal loss and told everyone they should be judged on who was the better team.
“You Be The Judge of Who Was The Better Team” – Nathan MacKinnon, Olympic Silver Medalist
Soto did the same thing in Miami. Both of them had every opportunity to win the game in front of them and neither team did.
Team USA won both times. That is not a narrative. That is the record. There is a version of losing with grace that both of these guys are fully capable of.
Albert Pujols showed exactly how it is done when he refused to make the controversial final pitch call the story and said it simply was not meant to be.
That is a Hall of Famer handling a brutal moment with class. Juan Soto and MacKinnon are both generational talents who are going to win plenty in their careers. They do not need to rewrite the result at the podium to protect their legacies.
You can be the best team in the world and still lose a game. It happens. What you cannot do is stand in front of a microphone after a loss and tell everyone the other team did not deserve to win. That is not confidence. That is a sore loser who cannot accept the result.
Team USA won. Both times. The only column that matters is the win column and their name was in it. That is the whole story.
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