It’s that time of year again. It’s the time when baseball’s deities report to their jobs 20 pounds overweight, 20 days late or both, with no repercussions. Ah, spring training.
But this is also a time for optimism. The only causes for worry right now are whether Randy Johnson is going to make another unassuming dove explode with his four-seamer, or whether David Wells’ 18-million-dollar beer belly has absorbed the last of the team’s sunscreen.
But this year should be different because this year fans have something more to look forward to than seeing Dontrelle Willis throw two innings against a minor league roster. Tomorrow we can expect the beginning of a star-powered, international all-star tournament known as The World Baseball Classic. Finally. Something to sustain our enthusiasm after the initial “Pitchers and catchers reported today!” jubilance. For baseball fans this should be a can’t-miss event, right?
Wrong. If you think the WBC is going to be the 18-day baseball equivalent of March Madness, then you will undoubtedly end up mad at yourself for watching. Somehow Major League Baseball has taken an event with Felix Hernandez-like promise and turned it into the Rick Ankiel of tournaments.
For an event that has been so amazingly hyped, it seems as though the WBC has caused more confusion than a Johan Santana change-up. Can Castro’s boys participate or not? Is Alex Rodriguez American or Dominican? And, what happens if there’s a tie after 14 innings?
Well, for now, it will stay that way. You would have thought Bud Selig learned his lesson from the 2002 All-Star Game when he stopped the game 11 innings in. Just wait until Panama’s Carlos Beltran belts a game-tying home run in the bottom of the 14th of the semi-final game. They’ll lose a chance at the finals by percentage points and the US will lose access to the Panama Canal forever. Now it’s bound to happen.
Then there’s the ridiculous size of the participant pool. The WBC should be running from their promotion “16 teams, 400 superstars” quicker than Ichiro runs out of the batters box. The only reason anyone might watch the Dominican square off against a team like Australia is to see if David Ortiz could be the first to actually dismember an Aussie hurler with a comeback line drive. Please, next time (if there is one) cut the number of participants in half.
It seems as though the number of superstars who were supposed to be participating has already been halved.
As of yesterday, the Indians’ CC Sabbathia and Mets’ Billy Wagner were added to the list of studs turned duds for the WBC. The drag-dressing sultan of sulk, Barry Bonds, heads the horde of no-shows, which also includes Manny Ramirez, Nomar Garciaparra, Hideki Matsui, Tim Hudson and perennial MVP candidate Vladimir Guerrero. Safe to say that people would rather see Sabbathia and Bonds don the Red, White and Blue than the 65-year-old Al Leiter and the replaceable Randy Winn.
Even the status of aces Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez is questionable for the WBC.
I won’t be there for my country watching the WBC on ESPN Deportes. But, I will be there for my Hoyas while they vie for a spot in the Final Four. Because, for now, there’s still only one tournament in March that gets it right.
