Kinsler hopes kids appreciate U.S. style of play over that of Puerto Ricans

The 2017 World Baseball Classic has been chock-full of bat flips, celebrations, whooping, and hollering. The stakes have been high, and winning has brought out energy usually absent in March baseball.

But like how the old school sneers at hyping home runs with a toss of a bat, players like Team USA's Ian Kinsler see a fundamental difference between his, and his teammates,' approach and that of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, according to Billy Witz of the New York Times.

"I hope kids watching the WBC can watch the way we play the game and appreciate the way we play the game as opposed to the way Puerto Rico plays or the Dominican plays," Kinsler said. "That's not taking anything away from them. That just wasn't the way we were raised. They were raised differently and to show emotion and passion when you play. We do show emotion; we do show passion. But we just do it in a different way."

Wednesday's starting pitcher for the United States is Marcus Stroman, who isn't exactly known for his reserved method of celebration.

But something is working. Attendance is up for this year's tournament, and ratings for Tuesday's semifinal peaked at 1.7 million viewers on MLB Network.

Puerto Rico designated hitter Carlos Beltran sees the tournament as a way to ease tension, and it's a source of good.

"We're going through tough times as a country," said Beltran. "The fact that we're uniting our people, everybody's rooting for us and we're playing such good baseball - hopefully we can finish this in a positive way."

As evidenced in Monday's victory over the Netherlands, Puerto Rico is an energetic team ready to fist pump when plays go right. From Yadier Molina throwing out two baserunners in a single inning to Javier Baez twisting away from a tag, Puerto Rico was pumped up from the get-go.

The opposing approaches come together for Wednesday night's finals.