When should the WBC be played?

[DrJones]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

I think the best plan of action would be two-fold. One shorten the regular season to 154 games for every year and then start the WBC the first week of March and push the entire MLB schedule back a week. If you have it at the All Star break, then anyone in the hunt for October drops out and that would not be good. November would be terrible because everyone is hurt and worn out. Spring is the ideal time. Just shorten the regular season by a week and it should be fine. During seasons where the WBC doesn't happen then they could finish the WS a week early and when the WS happens in the east or midwest the poor fans don't have to freeze to see a WS game.

Injuries shouldn't even be a concern, players get injured doing much stupider things than playing baseball. See Jeff Kent, Lance Berkman and Clint Barmes.

Interesting thought, but it's the least likely of all scenarios listed so far. Owners giving up 4 home dates apiece to accomodate the WBC?? Not in a kajillion years.

[southside_hitmen]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

It's about as likely as them holding it in the middle of the season. Let's not forget the All-Star Game determines who gets homefield in the World Series, so they are not just gonna push it aside once every few years and flip a coin instead. Add in the fact that July is a big attendance month and also the fact that all those Korean/Japanese/Mexican/Carribean league all-star breaks don't necessarily coincide with the MLB's and you come up with a scheduling nightmare as guys would have to leave their teams in the middle of regular season games to go play in the WBC.

It makes much more sense to have it either now or after the season. I would think now is the ideal time, as most players who have just played a full year probably want to use that time to see their family and recover from the year. This time of year would help you get ready faster for a season than spring training as you have to be on your game from the get-go. You are facing live pitching/hitting right away.

[DrJones]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

It's about as likely as them holding it in the middle of the season. Let's not forget the All-Star Game determines who gets homefield in the World Series, so they are not just gonna push it aside once every few years and flip a coin instead. Add in the fact that July is a big attendance month and also the fact that all those Korean/Japanese/Mexican/Carribean league all-star breaks don't necessarily coincide with the MLB's and you come up with a scheduling nightmare as guys would have to leave their teams in the middle of regular season games to go play in the WBC.

It makes much more sense to have it either now or after the season. I would think now is the ideal time, as most players who have just played a full year probably want to use that time to see their family and recover from the year. This time of year would help you get ready faster for a season than spring training as you have to be on your game from the get-go. You are facing live pitching/hitting right away.

MLB arbitrarily decided that the winner of the All-Star Game gets home-field advantage in the World Series because the ASG was becoming increasingly irrelevant and they wanted to boost TV ratings. It'd be pretty easy for them to change their minds and say, "From now on, the team with the best regular-season record gets homefield advantage," since that's what should happen anyway. The ASG wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Neither would foreign leagues -- they'd gladly shut down for a couple weeks. Cuba's leagues have for this one. It'd only be an issue for MLB (but a big one).

However, as you and others have pointed out, July is a big attendance month and logistics would be a problem. The WBC will almost certainly stay in spring training and I've got no problem with that. It's been a great tournament, and has generated a ton of fan and media interest in Asia and Latin America. The fact remains, though, that if MLB wants the WBC to be a Big Event in the USA, it has to move it away from March Madness somehow. Maybe they should just start it a week or two earlier. Like you said, November won't work -- free agents will avoid it like the plague; it'll face competition from college football, the NFL, the start of the NBA season; after 6 months of baseball, a month of playoffs, and the World Series, it'll be pretty anti-climactic, etc.

[jpup]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

MLB arbitrarily decided that the winner of the All-Star Game gets home-field advantage in the World Series because the ASG was becoming increasingly irrelevant and they wanted to boost TV ratings. It'd be pretty easy for them to change their minds and say, "From now on, the team with the best regular-season record gets homefield advantage," since that's what should happen anyway. The ASG wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Neither would foreign leagues -- they'd gladly shut down for a couple weeks. Cuba's leagues have for this one. It'd only be an issue for MLB (but a big one).

However, as you and others have pointed out, July is a big attendance month and logistics would be a problem. The WBC will almost certainly stay in spring training and I've got no problem with that. It's been a great tournament, and has generated a ton of fan and media interest in Asia and Latin America. The fact remains, though, that if MLB wants the WBC to be a Big Event in the USA, it has to move it away from March Madness somehow. Maybe they should just start it a week or two earlier. Like you said, November won't work -- free agents will avoid it like the plague; it'll face competition from college football, the NFL, the start of the NBA season; after 6 months of baseball, a month of playoffs, and the World Series, it'll be pretty anti-climactic, etc.

The 40k at every game in Anaheim didn't care much about March Madness.

[DrJones]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

The 40k at every game in Anaheim didn't care much about March Madness.

Few Mexicans or Koreans do. *rimshot*

Right now, the WBC is a already a huge event in Japan, Korea, and Latin America, but it's being treated as a curiosity in the USA, followed mostly by diehards such as ourselves. More live games have been shown on Canadian TV than American, for cripes' sakes. These events are expensive to stage. If Bud wants mainstream media exposure for this event, if he wants Team USA games eventually shown on Fox in primetime instead of at 1am on the Deuce, he has to move it away from March Madness.

[CoRruPt-]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

I thought the whole point of this tourney is to expand baseball across the world, not in America. I don't think it's the utmost priority to get Americans to be interested in the immediate future anyways. Baseball needs to get to more foreign countries, and so far, it's doing that perfectly well.

[DrJones]

Re: When should the WBC be played?

I thought the whole point of this tourney is to expand baseball across the world, not in America. I don't think it's the utmost priority to get Americans to be interested in the immediate future anyways. Baseball needs to get to more foreign countries, and so far, it's doing that perfectly well.

It's kind of preaching to the converted, though, wouldn't you agree? What this tournament has really shown me is the passion for baseball that already exists outside America's borders. Baseball is already a global game. It's more popular in Japan, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic than it is in the United States, and it's been that way for years. It might have an impact in boosting baseball's profile in Mexico and Korea, but that's about it. Will the WBC help the popularity of baseball in non-baseball regions like Europe, Australia, and Africa? Hopefully, but I'm not too sure.