The final of the World Baseball Classic was played Tuesday night in San Francisco, the Dominican Republic beating Puerto Rico, 3-0. Two passionate fan bases made some noise at AT&T Park with Caribbean drumbeats, vociferous cheers, and melodic chants.
But the WBC has been the equivalent of background noise on the American sports scene this month. WBC might as well stand for Who Bleepin’ Cares in baseball’s birth country.
Comments
Well said, Christopher. The US efforts in the WBC remind me of the period in the Olympcs when we were sending our best college players to compete against professionals froom the USSR and other countries that looked on the even as important to their national image. I'm only a casual baseball fan, but when I looked at the US roster for the WBC, I expected to have heard of many of them. I think I knew more names on our last soccer World Cup team.
Sorry: "even" should be "event." Where's my coffee?
I think one problem with this tournament is the 'time-of-season' it is held on. Perhaps if the WBC was held in late November early December- in warm climate locations of course-then USA's stars would participate. The playoffs and World Series would be completed, American players would be in baseball shape and not ready to go home and play golf or go hunting.....viewers would be primed after watching the WS. As it stands the USA has the World Series as that is what matters to us most. What is the incentive to play/participate in the WBC during spring training?
We're really not that patriotic, but we are very jingoistic. Give us a chance to show fake patriotism at the olympics every four years and we'll sort say ok, but a "minor" baseball tournement during spring training? No thanks...that's for those foreigners.
Because it is what it is, a exhibition series that NOBODY cares about except the idiot Dominicans. If they love their country so much why did they leave to come to the United States? Oh, right, money, opportunity, better life, less crime but idiots like Robinson Cano runs hard to first on every play in this meaningless series and dogs it for the Yankees who pay him millions.
Yeah, those stupid Dominicans, coming here to make a better life for themselves, AND caring about exibition baseball. They should be more like us; leaving behind old world, aritocratic grandeurs for the opportunity to be part of this new world societal experiment. Silly Dominicans.
Evidently Leo, you are to stupid to understand my point. Go back under your rock idiot.
To answer your Headline question -- because the "B" in WBC stands for Baseball. Great in the 19th and 20th centuries, slowly fading away in the 21st.
A big part of the problem is the time of year-most of us think of baseball as a summer or at least a warm weather sport. That's why spring training is held in Florida and Arizona. There are just too many other sports in heat of their races now-pro basketball and hockey as well as the college basketball conference championships setting up March madness. The timing is bad for US baseball players, who are heading into a very long season and are just gearing up when the WBC is held. If they get into full playing shape early, they may run out of gas by the end of the season, particularly if they are in the postseason as well. This is especially a problem for pitchers. It was the beginning of the end for Dice-K after he starred for Japan in the WBC and he was never quite the same. Unfortunately, the US baseball season is so long now that it is hard to see when the WBC could be held so that the best players would want to go. Also, there is talk of restoring baseball to the Olympics, which would fall in the middle of the season. Would they take 2 weeks off like the NHL?
Also, the fact that it is on MLB Network and not a standard channel probably plays a big part in nobody watching.
... and not available on MLB.com. If it had been I may have watched a game, or two, & maybe gotten hooked. No go. All they had were random spring training games.
That's right, both of the above. The WBC isn't even carried on MLB.TV, just on cable via the MLB Network and EPSN Desportes. Who (doesn't) Bleepin’ Care? MLB, obviously.
Because it's winter.
The 1992 Dream Team, was payback for the 1972 sham loss, stolen gold metal. Hold the WBC in the fall, after the World Series, might gain more viewship of the serious baseball fan. The rest of the USA will be watching the NFL or college football.
Its got that "soccer" feel to it. Terribly important to as bunch of countries we dont care about; not remotely important here. I think the time of year is a big deal. Its during Spring Training when no one is in shape. These guys arent in playoff condition. And, most team management AND fans hate that their players might get hurt there. I dont think its the players we send. If the US won that boring preseason exhibition, everyone would still yawn. Soccer...WBC... whatever.
We're baseball fans, and we cheer for our team. As a Red Sox fan, the players on my team come from all over the world, but as long as they're on the Red Sox roster, my interest in the player has nothing to do with where in the world they come from. I do not look at the roster and care which ones are Americans and which ones aren't. I suspect my disinterest in nationalities is typical of MLB fans living in the USA, so that's probably why the WBC is totally irrelevant to us. I can, however, appreciate that fans in the Dominican Republic, for example, might have a different view.