Why We Need a Real World Baseball Classic
by Jon Marthaler on Feb 22, 2010 11:00 AM EST
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If you're here, you're a sports fan, and if you're a sports fan - boy, I hope you watched the USA-Canada Olympic hockey game last night. It was only a preliminary-round game, and NBC thought so little of it that they dumped it to MSNBC, but - my word.
I don't know what else you can ask for in a sporting event. There was a deeply partisan, keyed-up crowd in Vancouver. The world's best players were on display. I can't quite describe the atmosphere of the game; it was like the seventh game of a hockey playoff series, combined with a USA vs. Mexico soccer match in Mexico City. It's an enormous rivalry. Canada is the home of hockey, and yet the Americans are the world champions at the under-18 and under-20 levels. Add this loss, and you can about imagine how much it all bothers our near neighbors to the north.
Take a look at that picture. That group celebration eventually ended up as a pileup behind the net, five grown American men celebrating like high school kids who've just won a state championship. How can you not love an event like this?
So let me take this occasion to make a renewed call for something I think is long overdue: a midseason break for a true World Championship of Baseball.
We all know that the World Baseball Classic, while fun in 2006 and 2009, was a bit of a joke. It was played during Spring Training, when most players aren't ready to give 100%, and was done without the full support of just about anyone involved. Some players didn't want to risk injury, and major league teams were positively aghast at the notion that something could be more important than "real" games. It was certainly fun - see the two Netherlands wins over the Dominican Republic in 2009 - but it still was a glorified exhibition.
Let's skip the All-Star Game, take a two-week midseason break, and let major-league players represent their countries. It'd be like the playoffs in midsummer, except with worldwide interest and national pride on the line.
I'm sure you can think of valid logistical reasons this wouldn't work, and I'm equally sure that those issues aren't insurmountable. I think most players would jump at the chance to represent their countries at a truly meaningful championship. I think fans - especially those from countries outside the United States - would love it. It'd be a great thing for baseball, a worldwide game, to have a truly worldwide championship.
Soccer's World Cup is the biggest event in world sports. The most recent Olympic hockey and basketball tournaments have drawn huge interest. It's time for baseball to get on board and put together a real World Championship of its own.
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Logistical Problem #1
There are a bunch of teams that don’t want their players participating, especially pitchers. This wouldn’t be quite as bad in midseason as preseason (when pitchers aren’t as likely to be in game shape), but it would still be an issue, and the team whose ace is used for the final game of the WBC will be pissed that they don’t get him until Day 5 after the WBC break (and you don’t want to go four days without games afterward to allow pitchers to rest, because that’s just too long a break).
I still think it sounds cool, and it might actually make me care about the WBC.
Does the NHL shorten the length of the regular season in Olympic years? You’d probably have to do that with this type of WBC setup, too, or else you’ll end up playing the World Series in mid-November instead of early November.
"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
the only issue
this is really it. imagine joe mauer, multi-year jillion dollar contract in hand, breaks his knee/hand/whatever in a collision at the plate.
to surmount this is all about money. it would have to be worth enough money to the owners that it would compensate them for the risks they’d take by letting their best players.
and the players get it, too. i’m sure they’d love to represent their country, but they know who’s writing their checks.
it’d be fun to watch, but i don’t think it will happen.
Then you just pick other players.
Maybe it starts out that only guys 16-22 can participate, and they have to be minor league players. There are ways to get it done, and even if it’s a bunch of kids…people are still going to watch. And it would be very exciting, playing on that kind of a stage. You hope that, eventually, excitement builds to the point where you start getting your All-Stars in the lineup, but even if you don’t, that’s okay. The guys who want to participate will find a way to do so.
Um...
Then you just pick other players. Maybe it starts out that only guys 16-22 can participate, and they have to be minor league players. There are ways to get it done, and even if it’s a bunch of kids…people are still going to watch. And it would be very exciting, playing on that kind of a stage.
How is that different than what we have now? The way the WBC works now, they just pick other players when the first choices can’t or won’t play. I think Jon’s point is that we need to figure out a way to get those top players to agree to play. I can’t come up with a good solution other than making it part of the standard player contract or something like that. I honestly think that it would be easier to move the WBC to a midsummer break than it will be to get all the top players to participate.
jfthomas is right about the Olympics – it use to be just minor leaguers (Doug Meintkiewicz was the hero of the 2000 games), and basically no one outside of Cuba cared, to the point that baseball isn’t even in the Olympics anymore.
"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
Yeah, maybe it's not different. I don't know.
All I know is that I like the idea, so I’m thinking out loud. If you can’t get those top players to play right away, how do you kickstart the idea? Maybe it’s done over the winter instead of the WBC when it’s currently played, maybe the baseball season has a couple of weeks off in the middle of the year, I have no idea. All I know is, watching European teams play each other is incredible. I don’t even care who wins, I don’t have an allegiance to any country here, but it’s intense and it’s exciting.
So maybe part of the issue with the WBC is that it so clearly conflicts with the MLB season, and that’s where the idea starts.
NHL Regular Season
Number of games doesn’t change. The season is just compressed by two weeks, more games in fewer days, especially in the first half of the season.
by Adam Peterson on Feb 22, 2010 12:22 PM EST up reply actions
It was a great game
and these tournaments are terrific. But…BeefMaster has it right.
Teams are too protective of their pitchers to let them really play in this sort of tournament. Plus, with so many different nationalities on teams, it creates a weird dynamic. Let’s say Francisco Liriano is dominating for the Dominicans. SInce almost all Twins fans are Americans, are we happy that he is being overused for a country we aren’t rooting for?
Same thing for Mariners’ fans and Felix Hernandez.
by Eric in Madison on Feb 22, 2010 11:17 AM EST reply actions
Those teams can lump it.
As a fan, I really don’t care. If the Twins are without a pitcher or hitter because of the WBC, well, life’s tough.
To compare it to this week – if Mikko Koivu breaks his wrist this week, well, that sucks for me as a Wild fan and it sucks for the team. But I recognize that something larger is in play here.
After watching Six Nations Rugby,
and even crappy soccer/football…it’s incredible when it’s Nation vs Nation. There’s something more at stake than rivalry and simple wins and losses. And you know what? Some guys don’t play. So what. It’s their loss.
I’d be totally on board for something like this. It’s easier in Europe, where so many smaller countries are bunched together, so build that competetive edge, but it’s something you just don’t get city versus city or state versus state. You’d have to pick a different location every time you wanted to have the event, and just play all of the events in that location, like the Olympics. But that’s okay.
As a fan I'm more into professional baseball than a national tournament
This is just my opinion, I’m not saying anyone is wrong. But I would be pissed if one of the Twins stars got injured playing for any team be it DR or USA. I thoroughly enjoyed the hockey game yesterday but I don’t really watch NHL hockey at all. I watch college and USHL because I like live hockey mostly. The point being I don’t care who gets injured or how the NHL is affected by Olympic hockey. However, I love MLB but don’t pay attention to Olympic Baseball, WBC, or College. The only reason I would watch what you’re talking about is because MLB is suspended for a few weeks. However, I’d rather just keep watching MLB if given the choice.
As of right now I view the WBC like the all star game(for any sport). I check the score but I don’t really care who wins or loses.
Peyton's good but have you ever heard of Jeff George?
I love this idea
Hopefully the WBC is working with MLB to make something like this happen. The beauty of a baseball tournament is that you can play games every day (even a couple doubleheaders), expediating the tournament to a championship much faster than other sports.
As for the MLB season, start it earlier. This needs to happen anyway. No MLB team should play their first game of the season later than April 1. The MLB playoffs can also be condensed. Again, this should happen anyway. Really the logistics of making this thing happen are not a concern at all.
Now we need to figure out how to get our MLB teams to le their players play. I am completely on board with “screw the owners.” Are they gonna get jealous that they are not the one’s who ruin the game this time? Plus, to prevent players from playing is very short sighted per their investment. Opening up their players to play in these games is certainly going to draw in more fans in the long term, fattening their bottom line even more.
by PinkiePinkerton on Feb 22, 2010 12:38 PM EST reply actions
Never been thrilled by the Olympics
I like watching for the individual performances but I don’t find myself rooting like crazy for USA to beat Germany for example. USA doesn’t really have any rivals at the Olympics since the fall of the USSR, moreso in the Winter Olympics where all the other countries seem to be allies. It was remarkable to see USA beat Canada but I wouldn’t have been upset if Canada won. I have nothing against Canada.
I’d be for the tournament (paradoxically) if it meant shortening the baseball season. Go back to 154 games for the years they have the WBC; have the WBC in November right after the World Series. This gives the players an offseason to get healthy in the case of an injury. I don’t like the idea of the WBC affecting pennant races.
Get rid of the WBC
Why not get rid of the WBC and have a real Olympic baseball competition, like what the NHL does when the Winter Olympics come around? That would be the best 1:1 comparison to what hockey is in the Olympics. Take a a couple weeks off the regular season and allow any and all pro baseball players to play for their nation, in the same way these NHL stars play. I don’t think any baseball player, no matter what time of year it’s played, is going to play their heart out for something called the WBC, and having an MLB-endorsed Olympics is the closest thing we can get to true international baseball competition, and I think these players would happily play hard for an Olympic gold, especially if they are facing off against all their pro-baseball teammates and rivals.
Of course (and I’ll answer my own question) that’s all a pipe dream, since MLB is fully behind the WBC and very anti-Olympics, in addition to the fact that it would probably take a lot of work to get baseball back in the summer games (even though I think the only reason it wasn’t very popular was the lack of MLB stars, which MLB prohibited – I think…).
Anyway, Olympic hockey is one of the greatest international sporting events – second only to World Cup soccer, in my mind – and last night’s pre-lim USA-Canada game was proof of that (in addition to the other two games yesterday, which were also great and featured some good rivalries). It’s really a shame that baseball has no 1:1 comparison.
Hey!
Hey, I LIKE the World Baseball Classic!
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
There is another way ...
MLB plays the season like normal. The winner of the world series advances to play in an international series.
Or ...
MLB expands into South America, Asia and Europe.
These teams would be full on MLB teams that take part in the major league draft, free agency and abide by all MLB rules. Like MLB, they would play the bulk of their games within their own division (or country or continent or whatever). And also like MLB, they would play games outside their division (or country or continent or whatever).
Likewise, US teams would go on the road overseas to play games with other MLB in other countries. They probably wouldn’t be able to play each and every team, but there is no reason each US team couldn’t do a ten game 3 team road trip overseas.
The two best overseas MLB teams slot into the wild card spots and take part in the play offs.
Probably better in theory than practice
That sounds like a cool idea (a sort of Champions League for baseball), but there’s a big problem – every other league in the world is inferior to MLB, and the Japanese league is the only one that’s even all that close. I don’t think the Yankees vs. Stockholm (last year’s Swedish league champions) is going to be all that exciting a matchup.
That kind of thing works in soccer, where there are multiple power leagues throughout Europe, but for the sports that are popular in America, the top talent gravitates to one league. It’s already pretty obvious that the Yankees are the best team in the world, because they dominated the best league. A World Cup or Olympic style competition makes much more sense the way baseball is structured internationally (same with basketball and hockey, where the best players are in the NBA or NHL).
"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
Good idea but...
So this is an annual event or the winner every 4th year gets to go? Who do they play? What if say the Twins win (Knock wood) and Liriano wants to play for the DR?
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"All morons hate it when you call them a moron." -Holden Caufield
by less cowbell, more 'neau on Feb 22, 2010 6:21 PM EST up reply actions
I'm not thinking annual event ...
I’m thinking MLB expansion around the world. MLB teams in Korea, Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries could make up one division and MLB teams from Mexico on down to Brazil could make up another. The winner of each division would slot into what are now the wild card slots and compete to play in the World Series.
Major league baseball in a dozen or more countries around the world instead of just the US and Canada.
Problems
1. There isn’t enough talent to expand the league to this level. You’re talking about maybe doubling the number of teams! There would be a lot of guys left playing we don’t currently consider Ml quality.
2. Economics. The rest of the world flat out can’t touch the US in potential revenue for these teams. Most of the international clubs would be AAA squads anyway, unless there was 100% revenue sharing. It would make more sense for the MLB to start opening up teams in every smaller market in the US (Portland, Oklahoma City, third NY and Chicago teams, Columbus, Orlando, Nashville, Memphis… hell, even Topeka) before they started a franchise in almost any other country. Money rules these things.
"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane
There's money in Japan and Korea
Europe has the $$ but not the interest.
I’d rather see baseball return to Montreal than go to Brazil.
The WBC Is A Joke
In my opinion the WBC one of the more ill conceived ideas that ever has been suggested. I mean when you get American born players playing for other countries just because of their lineage, it’s a joke. Anything that intefers with regular baseball season, I’m totally against. If after the season is over and the United States wants to put together an All-Star team and participate in some kind of winter league, go ahead, I don’t care. I’m more than likely not going to follow it, just like I don’t give a rats rear now who plays or wins the WBC.
Why is it just because some small group (and I mean small who really cares about this stuff) wants to know which nation in the world has the strongest sports teams in any given sport??? Again total joke. USA Basketball got whooped on in the late 80’s interenationally, so lets put the pros in the Olympics now. Same thing is going to happen with the WBC. I don’t think USA teams have done well in the two spring time carnivals so far, it will be just a matter of time where there will be even more pressure for ALL the best USA born players to participate, instead of just a handful that go now.
Just let MLB be what it is now a league with maybe 99% of the best players in the world playing and stop this crap of trying to formulate ways to establish bragging rights for a few people that will forget about the whole thing in a months time.
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