I’m not a huge fan of World Cup type competitions. I enjoy some of the Olympic events, because I don’t see those events competitively very often. I’m not overly enthused about the World Baseball Classic as it goes, because ‘USA’ doesn’t actually represent the best of what this country has to offer in terms of baseball players, and as fun as the games may be, it’s still going to be second-rate to the World Series. Second-rate means that since I have a better option, I’m not going to be that excited about it. I feel the same way about minor league baseball and college sports.
However, I’m also not against the World Baseball Classic. The number one reason cited for disliking it usually falls along the lines of injury. This is valid in a sense, but the thing is these guys aren’t robots that live in bubbles. They’d be in Florida or Arizona working out and playing games anyway. I can understand the worry, but you can have that same worry if they were with the club playing games, running in the outfield, or simply taking a taxi cab to the stadium. As far as baseball players go, you generally worry about them getting injured least while they’re actually performing, and that’s what these players are doing in the Classic. Pitchers are also held to a pitch count which is very similar to what they’d pitch in a Spring Training game.
We’re always criticizing players that don’t seem to play hard, or don’t seem to care. We claim they’re multimillionaire athletes playing for the money, not for the love of the game. However, things like the World Baseball Classic suggest that this isn’t the case. These players honestly want to play these games. They are excited to be out there competing for their country, and we should be thankful to have these competitive players on our teams. This has to be better than lulling players to sleep in a sense of complacency with a full month of meaningless spring games.
So far, I’ve enjoyed catching what Classic games I can. It’s certainly more exciting than Spring Training games, and while it’s not quite watching the Mets during the season, it’s exciting in it’s own right. I’m making my first trip down to Florida for Spring Training this week, and it coincides with round 2 of the Classic in Miami. I bought tickets, for what seems like way too much money for Dolphin Stadium, to game two between the Pool C runner up versus the Pool D winner. I’m excited to be there, and I think it will be an interesting experience. It also adds a little bit of intrigue to the round one games. At this very moment, I’m watching Venezuela play Italy in an elimination game. The winner plays the USA team, and the loser of that game is the team that I will see on Saturday. At the very least, I know I get to see the Mets from Puerto Rico on the other side, and as much as I probably should be rooting for the US to win the pool, I’d rather them be second, so I get to see the Mets on the team when I’m there.
