It’s a gimmick, and I can’t wait for MLB to roll around again. But I do, however, love baseball, and will probably catch several of the games when I am able to.

But it’s not like I’ll intentionally not watch it. It’s baseball, and any baseball works for me; however, I don’t care about it at all. It’s a silly tournament that means nothing and proves nothing, and I worry that it hurts the quality of the MLB season because players can’t get ready.

If I had to choose, I’d prefer it didn’t exist. I’d rather watch spring training games. If it’s on the TV though, I’ll have it on.

and I intend to go to the USA versus Canada game on March 5th. I will be wearing an A’s hat and an Obama sweatshirt.

Just not really into it. My thirst for baseball will be soon be quenched by the only team that matters to me.

If you’ve ever lived in a soccer loving country during the world cup, you know there’s an excitement about that tournament that nothing else matches. Not the Super Bowl, not the Olympics, nothing.

Baseball is almost as big as soccer. Basketball may be the second most played sport, but baseball is the only major sport other than soccer that is truly THE national passion in many cultures. Plus, north americans actually CARE about baseball.

I know all the reasons why the WBC probably won’t become baseball’s world cup, but if A’s fans didn’t know how to hope, what would we have? I enjoy the games, but more than that I enjoy thinking about what this could become.

So, I think you know my opinion of it.

It has its flaws but it’s still a lot of fun.

ZZZZZZZZ

It’s a shame that it’s scheduled so close to the regular season, in that a lot of the greats won’t disrupt their spring training preparation to participate. But I can’t wait until the games start.

With powerhouses like Cuba, Japan, Korea, DR, USA, hell even Canada is looking good with Harden, Dempster, Bedard, Russell Martin, Joey Votto, Jason Bay, Morneau, Stairs…

How can you not be excited?!

is structured currently, and definitely not the way it is currently scheduled.

I’m on board with the round-robin approach to the first round, but the one game playoffs from there are a bit antithetical to baseball competition in my view- I’d like at least a best of three series for the semifinals and the final.

The scheduling of it really needs to change, though- I do not see the wisdom of having it during the MLB spring training period, and I think the number of MLB players who choose not to participate bears my opinion out on that.

If they’re serious about it, then I think they should have it every 4 years and work it into the MLB schedule in the form of a 2 or 3 week break. This would not be a tremendous problem if only done every 4 years, and the timing could be basically an extended All-star break in July (with the All-star game capping off the break or something that particular year.)

This sort of scheduling would mean that the vast majority of MLB players would be in mid-season form and this would lead to a better overall competition with more participation from both U.S. players and MLB players that could represent other nations (through either 2nd generation connection or 1st generation status.)

Having the tournament in the early spring when MLB players aren’t in regular-season form yet does not encourage full player participation, and honestly I don’t blame them for not wanting to risk a pre-season injury or to sacrifice their preparation time for the regular season (which is also time spent becoming part of a cohesive team with other players and the coaches, manager, etc.)

Having said that, I think it’s a good idea overall (especially if there will be no baseball in the Olympics from here on out) and if I can watch any of it I suppose I’ll check it out.

I like the WBC and will watch it but it is sort of gimmicky.

If I love the game or the A’s more. usually i wind up on the A’s and for those reasons I’m part concerned with the players (specifically pitchers) being injured and also partly annoyed that we don’t have more representation on the teams (although CarGo is playing and he’s still an A to me).

but on days that I love the game more than I love my home team, the Baseball Classic is a godsend. I wish American players and fans cared as much as Dominican and Cuban and Japanese and almost everyone else’s fans cared. This is America’s game, but our neo-colonies play much better than we do and MLB is full of foreign born talent. If those players stayed at home and played in their national leagues, MLB would be a joke. The Classic is the one forum for players to demonstrate who they are as people. 80% of MLB all stars merely earn paychecks in America, but they play with the passion and joy of little leaguers at the World Classic and it makes for much better baseball.

I hope the World Baseball Classic sticks around and moreover, I hope that MLB will show the deference that other leagues have been forced to afford it to ensure they field competitive teams. There’s no reason we can’t have a 2-week layoff once every 3 summers. Maybe in those seasons MLB could try this odd little thing called the “Double Header”, it’d be nice if they could remember what one is.

But then I saw a couple games in Phoenix during WBC’s first “season” and had a blast. Lots of fun. Lots of fans from Mexico had driven up for the games and it was great to sit with them. I have little Spanish and those guys not much English, but we all spoke baseball and managed to communicate.
I thought the level of competition was generally quite high and as IBSlater commented..the players play with passion and joy.
I’d go again if I had the opportunity.