The team USA camp is a real love-fest:

"There's a special bond building here," Buck Martinez, head cheerleader and manager of Team USA, said after Saturday's workout.

"Guys are hanging out in the clubhouse just talking to one another. It's refreshing to see. There is no urgency for them to get out and get away. They're hanging out, wanting to get to know their teammates. And that's the aspect of this that's pretty special."

The Japanese have a term for that special something. They call it wa, or harmony; the sense of team over self.

Here, we call it chemistry - a magical feel-good feeling that makes good teams great; that carries an apparently ordinary lot like the 2005 White Sox to a steamrolling World Series Championship.

Crazy as it sounds, Team USA seems already to have it.

I'm not surprised. These are some of the best players, and they get to work out with each other in a non-pressure situation. For two weeks, they don't need to worry about the local press bothering them, or their manager yelling at them. It must be like taking a vaction with your best friends.

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