WBC Failure
Posted by Steve L. on March 4th, 2013 · Comments (12)
Via Baseball America -
In a nearly empty stadium that had the energy of a library, Cuba trounced China 12-0, invoking the mercy rule after the top of the seventh inning to improve to 2-0 in the first round of the World Baseball Classic.
The official attendance of the game was listed at 3,123, but whoever was counting must have included every player, coach, scout, media member and stadium employee who walked through the gate because the stadium was virtually empty. In reality, there appeared to be about 86 fans in the stadium, with neither team proving to be much of a draw for the fans in Fukuoka, creating the feeling of an Arizona Fall League game in a dome.
Not exactly the best news for the WBC, is it?
Personally, I think they are far better off scrapping the whole thing in favor of a slightly altered tournament.
(I’ve been saying this for years so if you have read this already, skip the rest of the comment)
I propose a real World Series. Now in order for this to work, the leagues in all participating countries would have to adopt the same rules and schedule. Take the championship team from each league around the world and let them play each other in a tournament like the one going on right now. Do it at the end of the year so that each teams players have recovery time between the end of the year and the start of the next season.
I personally would be far more excited to see something like the Hanshin Tigers vs. Monterrey Sultans than Chinese Taipei vs. Austrailia.
Corey wrote:
The tourney just started. It’s a midday/late Monday afternoon game in Fukuoka with two teams that don’t hold much in the way of interest.
I wouldn’t worry yet. If the attendance is the same or lower during Pool C (Venezuela, DR, PR, & Spain) & D (US, Mexico, Italy & Canada) games, that might be a cause for worry.
Oops! Quote fail!
This format doesn’t work, but the push is on to get baseball included in 2020 Olympics. For that to get done MLB baseball is going to have to shut down the way the NHL Hockey does.
Joseph Maloney wrote:
I think it would be interesting to see if Team USA could field a team from a pool of ex major and minor leaguers, unsigned free agents, and the like. If you look at the list of unsigned free agents there are some players that have “name” recognition.
Major slop, Livan Hernandez would be proud
http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/2013/video/play.jsp?content_id=25658299&topic_id=&tcid=vpp_copy_25658299&v=3
Man, if I cared about this and was a Korea fan I would be pissed. They get 2 wins, but don’t make the next round because of some crazy rules. This is just silly.
Did Levine & Trost price the tickets for the WBC too?
Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico…
Seems things have picked up a bit.
Pretty good couple of games today.
The US-Canada game was intense until the 9th. Good one.