Dempster, the WBC, and Loyalty

I don’t pay attention to soccer. My interest in that sport ranks somewhere below the interest I have in my belly button lint and somewhat above the interest I have in YOUR belly button lint.

And to be perfectly frank, I would prefer to keep nationalism out of sports. The problem is that fans often want it all — they want their MLB team to be competative, and then they want the star players of said team to play in an international tourney. I’d like to think my favorite players were some kind of supermen, immune to injury, fatigue, etc — but thats simply a fantasy. Soccer is hardly a good comparison, because soccer (due to its international appeal) specifically encourages nationalism in its sport, MLB does not.

Also, there is also the school of thought that by playing in the WBC, players are actually not getting enough playing time. Some players actually stated that it caused slow starts (ie; Zambrano). Spring training provides a systematic routine of training and excercise, the WBC only guarantees jet lag and the potential to start in a game.

It’s received great reviews, but I have a few issues with it (of no interest to anyone here).

My bad

was kind of the point. The World Series has been deemed the ultimate in baseball competitions since long before our fathers were born. But when it started, there were plenty of people who thought it was worthless, even after it had been established for several years. Some people take longer than others to accept change, especially in something as tradition-bound as baseball. But that doesn’t mean they never do.

the NHL does it and without much issue IMHO. Take a look at Vancouver next year. The NHL will nix the ASG and take those few days and put them towards the 17 or so needed for the olympics. Baseball is probably best off not to do this unless they figure out how to get those 17 days back. The season is too long. They’d probably have to get MLBPA approval to build in several day-night DH’s for all teams.

before it even got started; well before the late 90’s.

Should the IOC suddenly get a brain transplant and reinstate baseball and softball the WBC would simply go away as we know it.

Unless there’s a way to to an in-season tournament like the olympics are presently, this simply will not fly. There’s too much pressure now as it is to take into account rain/snow outs in April and October.

… all the teams agreed to do this. Harden’s workload in the WBC wouldn’t be very much different from what he’d throw in normal spring training games during the WBC time. As pointed out above, Canada’s not likely to get past the first round.

I think you can stop gnashing now.

They get to make their own decisions.