Great post.

and every objection/criticism is stupid.

I root for the underdog. So, go Netherlands! Until, of course, you come across my team. Then, go down hard in flames!!!

It’s a pointless made-for-TV creation of Bud Selig that’s sole purpose is to generate revenue at the expense of professionals who are getting injured for nothing. Nobody really remembers or cares what happens because, in the end, the best players aren’t playing – and they shouldn’t.

I wish the owners and GMs wouldn’t have been given a gag order on this. They don’t like it either. They don’t want the people they’re paying millions to get hurt in some silly national pride event that doesn’t actually prove anything. 162 games is barely enough to decide the best teams – one-game “series” are hardly worth getting excited over.

This might be fun as some pointless exhibition if the guys playing were college players or recently retired players. Then it could be a fun little distraction. But as long as players are being bullied into leaving the teams that are cutting the checks, no thanks. I’m far more interested in what the real teams are doing in games that, believe it or not, are more important: spring training.

Really? No, that has to be the dumbest!

I debated making this a fanpost, but there’s basically just one point to make:

We’ve all seen cellar-dwelling teams beat division leaders during the season. Heck, sometimes they’ll take a series. The winning team’s fans will crow and the losing team’s fans will be eating that crow, but it’s not really that big a deal. What doesn’t tend to happen is that sort of David/Goliath atmosphere in a game that has vital importance for both teams. The MLB’s season structure tends to take would-be Davids out of the picture, so by the team the postseason rolls around, an ‘upset’ is a slightly smaller Goliath knocking off a slightly bigger one.

Olympic and other amateur baseball events just don’t have the kind of variance in talent where you can have a team comprised mostly of major leaguers, many of whom are legitimate all-stars, get knocked off by a team of players that largely competes in what passes for baseball leagues in Europe.

This isn’t like a major league team getting beat by its own AAA squad in a spring training exhibition game, this is like that team getting beat by a motley crew of A and AA players in a game that definitely matters to the veterans, and I’m not sure we’ve ever seen that before.

in 2006 I was fortunate to actually be in Puerto Rico so I got to attend some games — it was a tremendous experience.

This time I haven’t been able to go, but I’m still enjoying the games.

It just seemed like it wasn’t planned well. But this time, I’m liking what I’m seeing.
My buddy and I just bought tickets to the final @ Dodgers Stadium. Sure, we might be sitting in the cheap seats, bought we’re gonna have a helluva lotta fun watching it…

I love the WBC. It is another example of how passionate non-Americans are about national sports. We love our baseball and our A’s, but when it comes to national (team USA) sports, short of the Olympics, no one gives a damn. I love the World Cup too. Most people here in the States either love soccer (futbol as it can be known) or think its worthless next to “American” football. Hopefully, if the USA team can get further in the WBC this year, like to the semis, then people will take interest. Maybe if win lose in the championship, then next time, people will care. Look at the Rays. No one cared until they made the playoffs. Even then it was the fevered excitement of the Yanks or Indians in the playoffs, but it was starting to grow. Sadly it takes success for many to take notice in America. I have always loved sports too much to ignore any sporting event (short of staged wrestling – which is more like a violent soap opera).

I wouldn’t mind seeing it rescheduled for either November or mid-season, but losing it would be an utter travesty. I hope I’ll be able to go next time.

And to get to the world stage (which i’m assuming baseball always aspired to, what with the name of its highest challenge, the “world” series) baseball has to stop being MLB-centric.

I’m a huge soccer fan and one of the thrills of soccer is precisely the variety of different overlapping tournaments, national and international, short- and long-term, important and obscure. And because I’ve been brought up with these various formats, I actually think that the WBC isn’t enough to make baseball truly interesting, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

So, through my soccer-afflicted vision, I don’t see the complaint about players missing spring training—that’s barely a sacrifice toward making the game more exciting and interesting. For example, Zanetti and Tevez are right this minute fighting against each other for their respective pro teams—Inter Milan and Manchester United—which are playing outside of their leagues on a Wednesday even though they both have league games later this week, and even though Tevez and Zanetti will probably both play on the same national team later this month. In other words, in one month, I’m going to see two top players play each other near the top of an international club competition, play against others in the middle of their respective leagues, and with each other in a lesser game qualifying toward the world cup. How thrilling is that?

About the complaint of how the elimination works… so what? The long season measures one thing. The sudden elimination measures another. OK, so you do get aberrations of some sort or another—if it’s the long season, does that actually measure the best team or does it measure the least-injured one? If it’s the elimination, does it measure the best team, or the best night by a given pitcher or hitter? Then again, it’s just a sport. It’s not like we have to find the perfect set of bests to measure or we’re all going to die (we are all going to die, aren’t we?). And since we can’t find the perfect set of bests, let’s just have a variety of tournaments and measure all the bests! It’s still baseball (even with the tiebreaker inning, men on 1st and 2nd, no outs rule—which is way more fair than 5 penalties by the way) and it’s still fair within the tournament (because both teams play under the same challenge).

As a matter of fact, we need more international play. The WBC itself needs to be bigger—every two years with a bracket of 32! Then we need mini tournaments—how about a California cup? Then we need a world cup of clubs. How rad if the A’s were playing a quad against Tecolotes, Dragons, and Metropolitanos. Not to overlook continental cups that end with a final series between the best team from each continent.

And no, this isn’t diluting the thing. Having more tournaments available to the players from your home team doesn’t mean that the tradition of baseball would diminish in any way. Just think how much richer baseball would be if everybody in the world liked it. Even within the US we see the variation of style between the 2 leagues, and we get a glimpse of another style when watching Japanese players in the US. Imagine if every country could develop their own style, instill their own players in it, share it across borders when players are drafted, and test it against other countries in a true world series. Yeah, then baseball would be as cool as soccer.

Wait, no. Actually, baseball would also have to get familiar with “descenso” and “ascenso”… When a major league team that’s been struggling for 3 years becomes a minor league team and when a minor league team that’s been king of diamonds gets to make it to the show, wholesale. Yeah, Rivercats host Yankees and Giants at Asheville Tourists. Don’t worry, Lincecum would still get to pitch for team USA. See how it all works out?

U-S-A!
U-S-A!
U-S-A!

72% like it
8% don’t like it
20% are neutral

it feels like an All-Star game rather than a real baseball game that the players are trying to win. I shouldn’t say that actually; I’m in no position to judge effort or desire. It’s more about in-game management, where they placing players egos and organizational demands ahead of winning the game at hand. It great to see baseball on TV earlier than usual, but I really can’t get worked up over it. I mean, how many major league teams would have Derek Jeter batting third?