I'm On Break...
Not as in a break from this blog (although I am known to do that from time to time... like for nearly 4 years in one instance), but Spring Break. That of course is a misnomer in my part of the world, where the week of Spring Break usually doesn't pass without some amount of snowfall. Anyway, I get a few days to recharge and let my mind wander, to think about those things which slip my mind while I am in the midst of academia. Things like: How the hell did Miley Cyrus find time to write a BOOK? Or who thought that "Gimme that Filet o' Fish" commercial was anything but goddamn annoying?
Mostly I've been interested in the World Baseball Classic lately. It's a nice reminder that the new baseball season is fast approaching, and today I plunked down for my tickets to a Mets game at the sparkling new Citi Field (a.k.a. Federal Government Field, since our tax dollars are pretty much paying for the naming rights now, not to mention K-Rod's salary). Of course it's not the biggest thing going on in sports right now, as we approach the NCAA Tournament (which Syracuse will finally be back in this year), and the home stretch of the NHL season with my Buffalo Sabres in position to once again miss the playoffs if they don't start winning immediately.
This World Baseball Classic was created a few years ago to run every 3 years and give us all a chance to see the best talent from around the world, talent that doesn't necessarily have to or want to play in the major leagues. In the case of teams like Italy and South Africa, it's because most of their players aren't good enough; in the case of the Japanese and Koreans, it's because most of them are content to play in their own high-quality leagues; in the case of the Cubans, it's because they'd have to defect. Still, it's a great concept for the sport, a combination of the Olympics (which recently dropped baseball) with the excitement of October, all before the regular season even begins.
It also gives us fantasy baseball players the opportunity to scout potential draft-day steals, because if some previously unknown Mexican player can take the best pitcher from the Dominican deep in the World Classic, it's pretty likely he can do it on a regular basis in the majors. The trade-off is you especially want to be wary of pitchers in this tournament. Three years ago when they first did this event, half the pitchers who took part got injured or proved otherwise ineffective not very long into the regular season because they were already overworked. This year, they're trying to minimize that by having the starting pitchers do their usual 4-5 innings that they would be up to at this point in exhibition games, but you still have to wonder with the pressure of the moment.
And the pressure, of course, is mostly on the United States. This is because the first time around, we thought we would dominate. After all, baseball is OUR national pastime, so this should be easy, right? Then we lost to CANADA in pool play in the opening round. Then we didn't even make the semifinals. Oops. So this time, we're expected to do well, and we have in the early going, surviving yet another scare from our neighbors to the north (although to be fair, the game was in Toronto) and blowing out Venezuela.
The attention being paid to the World Classic may not be quite as big in the States as it is in other countries, but that's okay. It's fun to see the other countries get up for this tournament because they care about baseball just as much as we do, if not more. And although some of these countries have to borrow players from us to field legit rosters (like the Italians who had Mike Piazza catching for them in 2006), it's cool to see them give it a good try. And even though much of the Netherlands team has never heard of wooden shoes (being from the Dutch-controlled Curacao and Aruba), it was still pretty awesome to see them upset the heavily-favored Dominicans the other day. But then it seems like other countries get more up for international competitions than we do most of the time (World Cup, anyone?) We only care about the Olympics from force of habit. Every 4 years, it's there, just like presidential elections (and the same year, conveniently).
The World Baseball Classic will go to every 4 years as well after this year's edition, so maybe we have to give this a few go-rounds before Americans get into it as well. But for my money, it beats the latest version of American Idol or Celebrity Apprentice. I mean I'm on downtime right now, but I'm not completely brain-dead...
Mostly I've been interested in the World Baseball Classic lately. It's a nice reminder that the new baseball season is fast approaching, and today I plunked down for my tickets to a Mets game at the sparkling new Citi Field (a.k.a. Federal Government Field, since our tax dollars are pretty much paying for the naming rights now, not to mention K-Rod's salary). Of course it's not the biggest thing going on in sports right now, as we approach the NCAA Tournament (which Syracuse will finally be back in this year), and the home stretch of the NHL season with my Buffalo Sabres in position to once again miss the playoffs if they don't start winning immediately.
This World Baseball Classic was created a few years ago to run every 3 years and give us all a chance to see the best talent from around the world, talent that doesn't necessarily have to or want to play in the major leagues. In the case of teams like Italy and South Africa, it's because most of their players aren't good enough; in the case of the Japanese and Koreans, it's because most of them are content to play in their own high-quality leagues; in the case of the Cubans, it's because they'd have to defect. Still, it's a great concept for the sport, a combination of the Olympics (which recently dropped baseball) with the excitement of October, all before the regular season even begins.
It also gives us fantasy baseball players the opportunity to scout potential draft-day steals, because if some previously unknown Mexican player can take the best pitcher from the Dominican deep in the World Classic, it's pretty likely he can do it on a regular basis in the majors. The trade-off is you especially want to be wary of pitchers in this tournament. Three years ago when they first did this event, half the pitchers who took part got injured or proved otherwise ineffective not very long into the regular season because they were already overworked. This year, they're trying to minimize that by having the starting pitchers do their usual 4-5 innings that they would be up to at this point in exhibition games, but you still have to wonder with the pressure of the moment.
And the pressure, of course, is mostly on the United States. This is because the first time around, we thought we would dominate. After all, baseball is OUR national pastime, so this should be easy, right? Then we lost to CANADA in pool play in the opening round. Then we didn't even make the semifinals. Oops. So this time, we're expected to do well, and we have in the early going, surviving yet another scare from our neighbors to the north (although to be fair, the game was in Toronto) and blowing out Venezuela.
The attention being paid to the World Classic may not be quite as big in the States as it is in other countries, but that's okay. It's fun to see the other countries get up for this tournament because they care about baseball just as much as we do, if not more. And although some of these countries have to borrow players from us to field legit rosters (like the Italians who had Mike Piazza catching for them in 2006), it's cool to see them give it a good try. And even though much of the Netherlands team has never heard of wooden shoes (being from the Dutch-controlled Curacao and Aruba), it was still pretty awesome to see them upset the heavily-favored Dominicans the other day. But then it seems like other countries get more up for international competitions than we do most of the time (World Cup, anyone?) We only care about the Olympics from force of habit. Every 4 years, it's there, just like presidential elections (and the same year, conveniently).
The World Baseball Classic will go to every 4 years as well after this year's edition, so maybe we have to give this a few go-rounds before Americans get into it as well. But for my money, it beats the latest version of American Idol or Celebrity Apprentice. I mean I'm on downtime right now, but I'm not completely brain-dead...
Labels: baseball
posted by Dave | 3:42 PM
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