WBC

Who's watching the WBC? I surely am not, well not until the finals and even at the point I will most likely watch something else unless Canada is in the final.

This "world class" baseball event is suppose to bring baseball to another level with the greatest players from around the world going at each other for world baseball supremacy. The problem is the WBC lacks any substance.

The players who participate in the WBC aren't even the best players from around the world. Think about how in football, I'm starting to refer to soccer this way, they have the World Cup. This is arguably the best and most popular sporting event in the entire world. Note: I am not a fan of football or anything that has to do with it. The reason why people love the World Cup is because it has the best players from around the world representing their respective countries. Plus, they go all balls out, or flop with "head injuries", to win. On the other hand, we have these over priced MLB players who don't want to participate because of the risk of injury is too high or in the case of Big Albert, insurance wasn't going to cover his contract with the Cards.

These players are so worried about injuring themselves they don't even think twice about participating in this event even if they are representing their own country. I can kind of agree with them here. The timing of the event is terrible. Think about it. All these players have been idle (When I say idle, I really mean they haven't been in game playing shape. Most of them keep fit with workouts and throwing programs and all that kind of stuff) for the past 5 months or so. Even if the best players come out to play in this event they won't be performing at mid-season level.

Look at Olympic hockey. These players take a break in the middle of the NHL season to participate in this event. Can anyone argue that these players are not playing at their top level? Didn't think so.

The WBC needs to find a way to bring all the best players from around the world in their mid-season form to really get my attention. Obviously this will not happen since the MLB is sticking with their 162 game seasons (which I think is a little overboard, does it really take 162 games to decide who should make the playoffs?).

If you move the tournament on the calendar, where would you move it? There are plenty of problems with moving the tournament. If you move it to after the MLB season, most players are going to be tired and I can gurantee some people will not show up because of the 162 game season, even with a month off.

The WBC, in it's current form, will not succeed. It just doesn't have the star power to draw the fans. Just imagine two no one name countries make it to Dodger Stadium for the WBC final. I wonder how many empty seats you are going to see.