The WBC - Baseball's Busmans Holiday

Well its been a while since I piped up with something on the WBC and sadly the more information I get the less enthused I am about the whole thing.

The whole tournament was billed as being a big advertisement for baseball around the globe with all the best players coming together to represent their countries in a competition to see who is the best. What we are slowly starting to see is that a lot of the best players are dropping out either with the disappointing but fair excuse of not wanting to push it too far after having serious time off with injuries the previous year e.g. Tim Hudson or Barry Bonds, but there are also the sad peons who just don’t give a rats ass and simply want to focus on their club performances because that’s where the green is e.g. Hideki Matsui.

On top of the diminishing returns in terms of talent involved the tournament organisers have also devised a whole clutch of rules designed to make sure no one tries too hard. Severe pitch counts have been mandated that can only be extended in order to finish an at bat (at least they have used a modicum of common sense there). In the first round pitchers will be limited to 65 pitches and if they have more than 50 they are made ineligible for the next four days. If they exceed the 65 pitches the ‘Game Operations Technical Committee’ will report it to the umpire who will have the ability to order a pitching change!! It’s tough enough that managers have to figure out when to change the pitcher and now the umps are doing it too?

30+ pitches see you suspended for a game (why not call it what it is?) and if you pitch on consecutive days that’s a suspension too.

The limits go up in the later rounds with an 80 pitch limit in round 2 and 95 in the semis and final. Anyone get the idea this whole thing is being skewed to benefit the major leaguers? Why should the Cubans or the Dutch have to worry about how much work their pitchers get? If big leaguers want to protect themselves for the benefit of the signatories of their cheques instead of giving their all to their country then fine but why handicap teams that don’t have the benefit of these superstars?

At least we won’t have long drawn out blowouts (lets face it they are going to happen) with the introduction of a mercy rule which will see games finish early if a team is leading by fifteen after five or 10 after 7 so maybe we might get a complete game shutout from some efficient pitcher but I won’t put any money on it.

On the whole the whole idea of this being a competition is being blown by the wayside as it becomes more and more friendly. How long till it just becomes a curiosity where not even baseball fans are particularly interested let alone an interest being sparked amongst people on the fringes in places where baseball isn’t that fashionable. This good idea is fast becoming undermined and few of the hopes surrounding its inception are looking to be realised.

How about this for an idea more befitting this tourney? We have kegs at the corners and every time you stop at first or third you must drink. We’re not far from that now and it’s either that or we just use normal baseball rules and let the players play until the best team wins by hook or by crook. Would that be so crazy?