Words I never imagined writing: what a week for European baseball! All we needed was a voiceover saying, "Do you believe in miracles?" after the Netherlands ousted the Dominican Republic from the World Baseball Classic. To boot, Italy scored six goals—uh, make that six runs—to knock Canada from the tourney, adding insult to injury by winning in Toronto's Sky Dome. I told you this WBC was going to be a hoot.

The U.S. team hasn't suffered any embarrassments yet, and ESPN's broadcasters have been raving about the vastly improved chemistry on the American team, at least compared with that flop of an '06 squad that didn't even reach the tournament semifinals. Of course, at the time there was no mention of any problems until after the U.S. team lost to Canada, South Korea and Mexico. It took three years for us to discover that the previous U.S. squad had "bad chemistry," "a country-club atmosphere" and "didn't take the WBC seriously."

That team was also saddled with baseball's most riveting psychodrama in the person of Alex Rodriguez. This time around Rodriguez opted to play for the Dominican Republic, at least before he was sidelined with a hip problem. Apparently only his curse lingered. On the American side, Derek Jeter looks a lot more relaxed playing alongside his Red Sox rival Dustin Pedroia than he ever has next to his teammate and putative pal A-Rod.

Chemistry is, of course, a group dynamic. Still the ESPN team credits Pedroia, the runt-of-the-litter second baseman who plays with a fervor bordering on rabidity, with setting the tone for this other team of Yanks. Pedroia is the anti-A-Rod in that he doesn't care how he looks playing the game—he swings from the heels and is often sprawled on the field—and worries only about the results.

Clubhouse chemistry didn't used to be a major preoccupation in baseball. Great teams like Reggie Jackson's Oakland A's of the early '70s bickered, brawled and flourished despite the clash of giant egos and disparate personalities. But of late, team chemistry is a concept that is garnering increased respect; it was considered crucial to Boston's historic 2004 championship, and since then teams have tried to replicate that level of player unity.

Which brings us full circle to A-Rod. Despite the consensus that he remains the top talent in the game, Rodriguez now bears the burden of three major raps that threaten to obscure his accomplishments. The first is, of course, the recent revelation that he cheated with performance-enhancing drugs, which at least raises the possibility that his numbers have been boosted by artifice.