Afternoon Baseball

That's not totally true. Segments of America will care because they love this concept, or because they are have ties to the remaining countries, or because the games are certainly better competition than spring training.
But the U.S. is out. And who cares? Nobody should, really. It's unfortunate, but there really is no national pride on the line for us.
Maybe there's national pride on the line for the other nations. But they don't have other dominant sports. And in the case of the Latin American countries, most don't really have much else to be too excited about. Finally, all these places are more homogenous in every way and demographic. The U.S. is the great melting pot, but all that means is that everybody does their own thing. Including not caring about the WBC or for some, about baseball in general.

That being said, the U.S. finish is disappointing. The short-series format isn't very good, but the pitch limits should have actually boosted a team with the depth in pitching that the U.S. enjoyed. And the lack of hitting was pitiful.