World Baseball Classic: Will it succeed?
This spring for the first time a world tournament consisting of 16 countries will take place it what will be called the World Baseball Classic. This tournament is sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). MLB also gives it blessings. An idea of what to expect was shown during last year's home run derby as each competitor represented their country. The tourney which begins March 3rd and goes until March 20th will interfere with Spring Training. I don't think the players involved are too worried about that. I do question the competitiveness this will bring out. Will the tournament be laid back like an NBA all-star game or will the players go all out. Who will be favored? Surely one would think the U.S. has to be one of the top teams. The WBC will be going on at the same time of March Madness. A couple of people have already told me their not going to watch the WBC because of March Madness. So I have to ask, will the general public be in "baseball mode" at this time of the year?
What about the MLB teams, are they concerned over risking injury to players before the season? Of course, who isn't? I say if it's going to happen, it's gonna happen. For example, two years ago Aaron Boone torn his ACL in a pickup basketball game and had to miss the next season. In this case some major league teams are not allowing some players to participate in the WBC. Finnally, will the WBC succeed? I think so. It's something new and fun for the game that has been dragged through the mud the last few years.
Here's a list of Braves players who will be participating in the WBC:
Pete Orr, Chris Reitsma, Scott Thorman-Canada
Oscar Villareal-Mexico
Andruw Jones-Netherlands
Jorge Sosa-Puerto Rico
Chipper Jones, John Smoltz-United States
What about the MLB teams, are they concerned over risking injury to players before the season? Of course, who isn't? I say if it's going to happen, it's gonna happen. For example, two years ago Aaron Boone torn his ACL in a pickup basketball game and had to miss the next season. In this case some major league teams are not allowing some players to participate in the WBC. Finnally, will the WBC succeed? I think so. It's something new and fun for the game that has been dragged through the mud the last few years.
Here's a list of Braves players who will be participating in the WBC:
Pete Orr, Chris Reitsma, Scott Thorman-Canada
Oscar Villareal-Mexico
Andruw Jones-Netherlands
Jorge Sosa-Puerto Rico
Chipper Jones, John Smoltz-United States
posted by Adam at
12:39 PM
1 Comments:
I personally can not wait until the World Baseball Classic - I just look at it as a way of getting at least some kind of semi-meaningful baseball a few weeks earlier than normal. Not sure about the general public though as many just plain aren't used to baseball so soon. Real good point about college bball too - as excited I am about the WBC, if there is a big NCAA tournament game conflicting with a baseball game then I'm not even sure what a huge baseball fan like myself would even do.
I think the baseball we do wind up getting to see will be great though. All of these guys should be playing all out for national pride and that'll be something special to watch. I can't wait until final rosters are set, but it looks like the US team and the Dominicans will be the favorites. Lots of potential Braves playing for Canada - I had no idea Reitsma was a Canuck, go figure.
The new stuff coming out about Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela is crazy. Looks like Cuba won't be allowed to play any games in the US (per the US government's ruling). They thought they had the problem solved by playing their games in Puerto Rico. Guess they forgot PR is a US commonwealth. Now Venezuela has stepped up and offered to host Cuba and the other teams in that bracket for their first round games. The politics behind world competitive events like these always seem to get complicated. Gotta love it.
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XXX, at 10:34 PM
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