I love the World Baseball Classic. I can’t figure out why the rest of you don’t.
By the rest of you, I mean Americans in general. We all got behind the “Redeem Team” in Olympic basketball and the Ryder Cup golf matches last summer. Those were the “USA against the World,” and we were collectively pumped. .jpg)
Now we’ve got USA against the World in our national pastime…and the apathy is thick enough you can cut it with a knife. Why? The rest of the world goes crazy for the WBC…and we don’t care.
My guess is that’s because the WBC happens during Spring Training, a time of year where we’re used to results not mattering too much. It’s exhibition season. That and the fact that a good number of star American players don’t care enough to show up, either. Is anyone up in arms because the American’s got “ten run-ruled” by Puerto Rico on Saturday night? Not many. The Dominican Republic is in mourning after losing in the WBC. They send their very best players. We send about half of ours.
Our shortcomings are most noticeable on the pitchers mound. Team USA’s pitching staff, for example, is rolling out these five pitchers you know very little about: Jon Grabow, Joel Hanrahan, Matt Lindstrom, Matt Thornton and Brad Ziegler (along with LaTroy Hawkins, who you probably know as much about as you want to.) Okay, they’re all good pitchers…but is this the best we can do? Where are Brad Lidge, Cole Hamels Ryan Dempster, Dan Haren, Roy Halladay, Jon Lester, CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Brandon Webb, Cliff Lee, Tim Lincecum, John Lackey, Joe Nathan, Joba Chamberlain, and Scott Kazmir, just to name a lot? If you’re keeping score, that’s a couple World Series MVP’s, several all-star game starters, league strike out leaders and no less than five Cy Young Award winners. Now THAT would be a pitching staff to get excited about.
Baseball is now officially out of the Summer Olympics, largely because the United States will not send their best players. As cool an event as the WBC is, it could face the same fate unless USA baseball does something dramatic to make the event matter in the birthplace of the sport.
Here’s a radical suggestion to consider, since the globalization of baseball is such a priority for MLB’s hierarchy. Follow the lead of the globalized NHL and replace the All-Star game/break every four years with a two-week break for the WBC in mid-July.
The event would have to be condensed somewhat – fewer off days and all the games would have to be played in say, southern California and Arizona. The rosters would have to be expanded to 40 players so no one would get overworked (for instance, you could play Jimmy Rollins at short one day, Derek Jeter one day, Troy Tulowitzki one day, etc…), you’d have to have pitch limits (which they already have) and plenty of rest between games for all the pitchers, even more so than the regular season.
If you made the rosters large enough so you could guarantee players a lighter work load, it would have a similar effect to the all-star break physically, and re-charge players mentally. Just like the NHL, the MLB teams could continue to have workouts and exhibition games during the two week break when they’re without their stars so they could stay sharp.
As for the MLB schedule, you would simply start Spring Training a week early, and then start the regular season two weeks early, playing late March games in the warm weather cities and domes. Players don’t need a long camp to get in shape. They work out all winter, and they’re already in shape when they arrive. And no one thinks Spring Training needs to be as long as it is, anyway.
Yes, I’m suggesting that MLB do something dramatic, which is exactly why it’s never going to happen in a sport that is so bound by tradition. But if the WBC ever going to become something lasting and important to America, then something like this, or something else that can convince ALL the best American players to show up, has to happen. I don’t believe the event will survive if the USA continues to get ten run-ruled in international competition in front of half-empty stadiums.
(AP Photo of Team USA's Brian Roberts by Lynne Sladky)
For more info: www.worldbaseballclassic.com
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