WBC = World Baseball Catastrophe

Who doesn’t love the idea of a yearly Olympic style baseball tournament, where countries get together to compete in a sport worth watching. Superstars representing country pride rather than paycheck, great uniforms, motivating commercials on ESPN…except it occurs during the worst possible time!!! What is Bud Selig thinking??? He’s a former owner (or current, the Brewers are just coming back on national radar), so he should know better. They take the players away from their REAL teams, their paying jobs, during possibly the most significant point of the season when the team bonds and coaches develop their players. It’s like putting bacon in a grilled cheese after it’s already been cooked. Imagine a high school principle pulling kids out of classes to take part in an extracurricular activity, while the parents are paying $20,000+ for their children to learn math and English. Though it may be beneficial, it needs to be organized better. What if one of a team’s prominent player gets hurt during one of these exhibition games? It’s sports, there’s always a little wear and tear. Between twenty-two of the MLB teams there are at least 50 prominent players participating in this tournament, many of which are the stars of their MLB club. Expected contenders this upcoming season such as the Red Sox, Cubs and Mets have 4 or more of their best players away from Spring Training, in addition to the Yankees losing A-Rod and two others. If I’m an owner, where’s my insurance policy, or rather, why in God’s name would I let my moneymaker go risk his season? Mind you, I’m not against the idea of having the Classic. Let’s have it during the winter so that players have plenty of recovery time to heal if injured and fans can appreciate the classic more as no other baseball is going on (don’t even dare the thought of mentioning Winter Ball in South America). Accommodating Winter Ball is probably the reason for the timing of the Classic, and as the WBC is really only intended for the purpose of promoting baseball worldwide, baseball doesn’t need to be promoted in the South American countries where it is already Queen next to soccer. Do you really think the teams down south or anywhere in the world outside of the US have nearly as much money invested into their teams? Guess all I can say now is “Play Ball” and call me when I have the last laugh.

~Sir Charles~