The best plan for the next WBC
Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 1:20 PM
On Sunday driving to the airport in Boise after broadcasting a weekend of March Madness, I listened as the radio announcers were selling their audience on the noticeable growth of the World Baseball Classic.
They were simply being company men -- a stance with which I am familiar. But there has been no WBC excitement anywhere I have been this month.
On Monday night, the telecast of the championship game tried to communicate the passion between Asian rivals Japan and South Korea, complete with pre-game pageantry, and oft-clumsy attempts to speak their languages.
For these eyes and ears, it didn't work. A quick channel switch was made, and Jack Bauer was saving the world from a bio weapon.
Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Bud Selig, has been front and center in praising the WBC as an instrument of growth for the sport. Jump on the train, he said, because it is not stopping. Selig’s passion for international baseball is admirable, but the mechanism for this tournament needs an overhaul.
Five things I learned from the second edition of the WBC:
1. MARCH IS NOT A BASEBALL MONTH. ESPN, the television partner of the Baseball Network for the WBC, didn't even air most of the games in the early rounds, busy as it was in a blizzard of NCAA conference basketball championships. And there is the point. March is Madness, a national event that touches all corners of the country for several weeks.
March baseball is about relaxing games in the spring sun. The best concept for the timing of the WBC is to play the early rounds in March, and have the surviving four teams meet during the All-Star break. This is sensible as it brings the WBC championship to a time when baseball interest is peaking -- the summer. And wouldn't Fox prefer, once every four years, a legit international competition instead of the nonsense that presently masquerades as the All-Star Game?
2. IT ISN'T LEGIT IF THE BEST DON'T PLAY. The U.S. didn't have a first baseman. Derek Jeter played shortstop ahead of Jimmy Rollins. Albert Pujols and Johan Santana didn't play because the cost of insuring them, both coming off surgery, was too high. How are we to take this tournament seriously when insurance is a roadblock?
It's simple. Baseball intends the WBC to be a "World Cup," a worthy goal. But Ronaldo, Messi, Henry, and Rooney don't beg out or expect to be begged into the World Cup. Baseball's best players need to adopt the same mindset. And the teams need to be soothed from their understandable reluctance of having their stars take part in the WBC.
3. PATRIOTISM LIVES. The reaction to David Wright's game-winning hit for the U.S. against Puerto Rico was sincere. Wright said his cell and text messages were still burning two days later. Every two years, the Olympics remind us that representing your country still matters. No professional affiliation can match the emotions that follow wearing USA across your chest.
Nothing will shake the memory of Pat Borders, a man with World Series rings, and Doug Mientkiewicz, another MLB veteran, with tears streaking their cheeks as gold medals were draped around their necks, and the Star Spangled Banner was played at the Sydney Olympics. This year's USA celebration after beating Puerto Rico should be THE sales point for the WBC in the U.S.
4. APPRECIATION FOR THE ASIAN WORK ETHIC. Alan Schwarz wrote a terrific piece outlining this in the New York Times. The Asian teams still practice what U.S. teams now only preach. They use workouts as a means to improve rather than obligatory functions. They hone skills through repetition, the same skills that we often lament as missing among today's players. Former big league outfielder Rob Ducey said it best, "They work their craft a lot more than we do." And that isn't even touching the issue of the superior conditioning displayed by the Japanese players.
5. DONT GIVE UP ON THE OLYMPICS. The international strength of the WBC, as promoted so heavily by Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Bud Selig, is the reason baseball needs to push for an Olympic return. But on that point, the commissioner's international fervor fades into the old mantra of "we can't interrupt our season." Call Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, and ask him how that model has worked for hockey.
International Baseball Federation president Harvey Schiller admits that baseball is aligning itself with softball for a dual return to the Olympics in 2016. There are admittedly many issues to overcome before major leaguers would play in the Olympics, drug testing at the top of the list, but in Schiller's answer, I sense the reality that the WBC is primary to MLB.
