Thoughts on the World Baseball Classic?
Two years ago the WBC was played with star-studded line-ups, but many of those players experienced a very serious sluggish start at the beginning of the MLB season. Worse yet, some of those players ran out of gas by mid-season. While baseball needs to become a global sport as it was in the late 80s and through much of the 90s, the WBC seems to instead be creating major conflicts with the MLB and its owners. Nice idea. Bad timing. Baseball must first heal at home before global fans will return. I have more thoughts, but would like to hear yours. Thoughts?
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Play it in November/december or in january. Play in warm climates, and the games in the US can be in warm cities or indoors. Players can substitute this with playing in cuban/dominican winter leagues.
ReplyDeleteBut we shouldn't even be having this argument. These guys are played millions to PLAY BASEBALL. Suck it up and be honored that your representing your country. I can't stand when players refuse to play for their country, most recently Ryan Dempster who turned down his native Canada earlier this week. What is he afraid of? This way he could actually have a legit excuse for choking in october.
Is it that simple?
ReplyDeleteI don't see why not, baseball stadiums are pretty much open during these times. It could even give free agents who had a slump at the end a chance to rise their value.
ReplyDeletei think it does hurt the team, you see how mad the cubs are about marmol pitching for the dominican team, thats a lot of wear and tear on the body each year. the only way it could legitimately work competiviely is if they did something like hockey does with the 'olympic break.' personally though, i dont think this is worth it though so i think unless you do it every 4 compared to 2, they might as well scratch the idea
ReplyDeleteso basically what you're saying is a player's main focus should be the money instead of country pride, and giving back to the country that they developed the skill in the 1st place?
ReplyDeleteIf these guys can sign contracts for $150 million dollars, i think they can donate a couple more weeks every 2 years to their country
I agree with ethan, why not replace carribean play with the world baseball classic?
ReplyDeletenot everyone that plays caribbean league plays in the wbc. and if your an owner you want that 150 mill to be for your club. Personally i'm not the biggest fan of the wbc simply because i hate the idea of a starting pitcher only pitching at the most 3 innings because of the cirumstances. really does not feel like a baseball game
ReplyDeleteKent=communist, doesn't believe in players giving back or representing country
ReplyDeletecommunist would be the other way around buddy just look at cuba
ReplyDeleteAnd that 150 million is going to the team, the wbc has no scheduling conflict with the mlb. Im pretty sure an athlete has the option to do what he wants in the offseason.
ReplyDeleteThe winter leagues are the exact same, the only reason why owners aren't bitching about them is because their best players arent down there. They could care less what their inexpensive players do, but once a star player is asked to spend a couple weeks for the wbc its the end of the world.
its got a conflict with spring training and there natural progression in getting ready for the season. there getting ready slowly and all of a sudden just thrown into a sped up situation. i know that doesnt make them sound like the toughest guys but i dont think its fair to the owners to have their investments crap out in the middle of the season because of a system shock earlier. if every 4 years itd be more understandable but every 2 is just too often and im calling this thing dead by 2013 if no changes are made
ReplyDeleteThis is the MLB not Palatine Youth. All hockey players play for their country. All NBA players play for their country. Why cant Mlb players do the same?
ReplyDeleteProfessional athletes play sports for the love of the game, not to impress their GM or owner.