I’m ready for the World Baseball Classic

Next month, baseball fans are going to be treated to a very interesting exhibition of epic porportions. The ‘World Baseball Classic’ is going to be an interesting tournament to watch, and for fans who have been dying to watch a ‘World Cup’ like baseball tournament are finally going to get a small taste of what one will be like for this sport. You see, we never get a chance to see the pros play tournaments like this cause Baseball refuses to shut down for the Olympics, and that was one major reason why the sport has been dropped from the schedule for the 2012 games in London. Baseball has been given a lot of black eyes for their drug policy or lack thereof, but I think they’ve made the changes necessary to get things back on track. If they want to mend fences with a lot of organizations, they should take a page out of the NHL Playbook and actually stop the season to let players participate in the Olympics, which would be a good PR move like it is for the NHL. Japanese and other asian leages shut down for the games, so it’s only fair to other nations if MLB did the same thing. Hopefully if the Classic is a huge success, and they can lobby to get Baseball back on the schedule, perhapes the IOC and MLB can work out a deal that will be great for the game and the Olympiad because I would rather watch baseball at the games than ping pong.

Putting together a massive international event like the Classic is a good first step to getting the sport back in the spotlight, but the US has gone out of their way to hurt and almost cancel the entire event before it got a chance to get underway. The US Treasury Department almost shut down the entire tournament by not giving a permit to team Cuba to particpate in the games. Turns out they didn’t want any profits to go to the players of that team which would have been a voilation of the trade embaro. Yes, that embargo is still active! Furious over the decision to not allow Cuba to play sparked an outrage which almost resulted in the cancellation of the tournament. Castro took advantage of this and bragged that his team is so good the US must be afraid to take them on. To baseball fans, this doesn’t seem like an unrealistic threat since Cuba does have one of the best baseball team in the world. They’re like the Brazil of baseball and will be tought to beat. To knowledgable baseball fans, this doesn’t seem like an unrealistic generalization since Cuba does have one of the best baseball team in the world. They’ve taken three of the last four Olympic gold medals and are considered to be the Brazil of baseball and will be tough to beat in the classic.

So when US banned Cuba, one of the best teams in the tournament from the competition, this is when it all hit the fan. The international baseball assocation threatened to unsanction the event, would would have resulted in about 70% of the teams dropping out. Not only that, but Cuba offered to donate all proceeds to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but I think what cause the biggest stir is when the International Olympic Committee got involved. The President of the IOC wasn’t shy in expressing his disappointment in what was a very big mistake. He went out of his way to point out that sporting events is where countries are to put their differences aside for the fans and the game… and that if the US didn’t reconsider their decision to bar Cuba from the Classic, the could kiss any chance of getting the Olympics in the future good bye. That in my opinion was the straw that broke the camel’s back as the US backtracked and Cuba is now allowed to participate in the classic with their proceeds going to Hurricane Katrina. This was a good move by the US because they never attempted to ban Cuba from any other sporting event, so this shouldn’t have been any different.

So now that the Cuban contraversay is out of the way, we have nothing but good baseball to look forward to, right? Apparently not cause teams are losing pro-players right left and center. Million dollar cry babies are refusing to play for their country, citing the upcoming baseball season and loyalty to their cities as the reason to desert their home countries. This is complete and utter bullshit. The whole point of the tournament is to showcase the game and bring a little PR back to a sport that is badly in need of a little good press. Close to a dozen major players, with the biggest drop out being home run king Barry Bonds have all dropped out of the classic with lame excuses in their path. This has to be a complete insult to the players who are participating as well as the fans who are paying over money to watch these games. To think that these million dollar media whores are doing this for their teams is a complete crock. Bonds doesn’t want to mess his chance to catch with Hank Aaron, though I doubt he’ll be able to even get close to him this year.

I find it funny that most of the big names dropping out are on Team USA. Should be consider it coincedence that all these players are all dropping out because the tournament has decided to test two random players after each game? I’m sure these tests are going to make baseball officials just a little bit nervous… and made some players nervous to the point where they dropped out completely. Tis a shame cause I was looking forward to seeing Barry take a test to be sure what he’s on (or not on) once and for all. We all know that a positive test would hurt the game exponentially and kill any chance of them seeing the American classic make a return to the Olympics. It’s a shame that one of the people most rumored to be on the juice (Bonds) walks away from a tournament that is going to be really tough on drugs. Makes one wonder how Barry will do when MLB asks him to pee in a cup. I hope he’s the first player tested this year cause they need to get that cloud away from Barry or any record he breaks this year will be tainted and will deserve to have an alterisk beside it.

But will all the big players dropping out, teams like USA who are seeing mass defections are going hurt their chances of winning the tournament. That’s why I think one of the Caribbean teams — most likely the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and possibly Cuba– will end win this inaugural tournament. As much as I would love to see Canada do well, I’m not going to hold my breathe. Should be an interesting tournament… and I hope all goes well for the game cause I would like to see more tournaments like this in the years to come. We’re only a month away, so let’s hope the game and the tournament go off with out a hitch.

Peter