Other baseball people I met include Mike Piazza, Mike Hargrove, Tom Trebelhorn, Jeff Conine, Omar Minaya, and Jeremy Guthrie. I rode an elevator at the Rogers Centre with Larry Walker and Justin Morneau, who were heading to a Toronto Maple Leafs game after Team Canada’s loss to the United States in the opening game. At various points I found myself just a few feet away from Derek Jeter, Dustin Pedroia, Chipper Jones, and Andres Galarraga.
As a fan, there are a number of things I think need to be changed about the WBC.
First of all, a team should have to beat two of the other teams in its first bracket to advance. Venezuela should not have moved on to Round 2 simply by beating the same team twice, especially a team like Italy that has so many fewer major leaguers. That they beat the U.S. in their second try doesn’t count for much because there was little pressure to win, as the only thing on the line was seeding in Miami.
Secondly, all participating countries need to have their best players participate to make the WBC what it should be. Team Canada was sorely lacking in the pitching department, as Rich Harden, Erik Bedard, and Jeff Francis are all recovering from injuries (Francis just had surgery and is expected to miss all of 2009) and Ryan Dempster reportedly declined an invitation to play for the Canadians. Team Canada’s best pitcher – Scott Richmond – didn’t throw a single pitch in the Classic because he was being saved for a game that his team didn’t even get to play.
Finally, unless the attendance will be higher in a city that has a domed stadium (e.g. Tokyo) than it would be elsewhere, WBC games should not be played indoors. Baseball was meant to be played outdoors; the only good reason for it to be played in a dome is when the climate makes indoor baseball the only option. Canada in March is one of those instances, so Toronto should not have been chosen as a host city for the Classic. That said, if the Rogers Centre had drawn big crowds to each game it hosted then one could argue that the benefit outweighed the cost. Unfortunately, Toronto did not draw even close to enough fans to demonstrate that they deserve to host any round of the WBC again. The only game at which even half the seats were filled was the opening game between the United States and Canada, which drew 42,000 fans – nearly 30,000 more than each of the other games.
With plenty of time to think about the World Baseball Classic as a whole before my next post, I’ll have more to say from an inside point of view in two weeks.
I’m looking forward to catching the rest of the WBC on TV and am hoping there are some thrillers to be played. Baseball fans around the world deserve nothing less.
Keywords: Canada, indoor baseball, Italy, Rogers Centre, Toronto, World Baseball Classic
