MLB should ride off the WBC momentum
Classic in name and finish.
So the World Baseball Classic wrapped Tuesday night. It was equal parts movie script and sports nirvana.
The questions after a perfect finish to what has been arguably the best baseball anyone can recall are swirling in my head.
Before we get there, though, let’s drink in the final out of Japan’s 3-2 win over Team USA. Japan ace Shohei Ohtani on the mound. Mike Trout — one of the best baseball players by any metric to ever pick up a glove — at the plate. One-run game. Two outs.
Ohtani goes 100 mph heater twice for the first two strikes, and on the sixth and final pitch, delivers a perfect, frisbee-esque slider to strike out his Angels teammate. (Side question No. 1: How can the Angels have these two dudes and still suck?)
And as great as that sounds — the two best baseball players on the planet deciding a world championship — know it was even better broadcast in Japanese. Trust me.
My only regret of the entire WBC is that I was not more invested from the start.
Moving forward, my consternation only grows with MLB’s instance of being its own worst enemy.
This was the best stage, the best energy, the best environment that baseball has had since we pretended that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were just really good baseball players and that the syringes littered along the warning track was from the celebrity softball event to prevent childhood diabetes.
So make the most of this. Now, I applauded MLB’s attempts to change its game in terms of pace and purpose. The game needs a lift, and the rules have added action.
But the WBC delivered action and emotion — and the latter is every bit as important and can not be crafted or manufactured with pitch clocks or strategy alterations.
And the WBC delivered emotion by the truckload. Heck, it was so filled with emotion, they would need Steam Logistics working 24/7 to get all the emotion on schedule across the globe.
But the MLB clearly is blinded by the dazzling lights. When making the most of this event — globally, this
event was infinitely more intrigued and viewed than any of the last dozen World Series — makes the most sense, MLB going to MLB.
First, MLB commish Rob Manfred has already said on record that the next WBC will not move from its March date?
One of the main reasons sports fans like me were late to the WBC shindig was that it overlapped with the first two days of March Madness. That is controllable, so control it, Rob.
Second, let’s make this an every year deal while the players are interested and the fans are clamoring for it. Yes, the injury to Edwin Diaz was a downer, but it also was a freak accident that could have happened in spring training, at his kids bar mitzvah or walking to the Mapco for one of their delicious fountain drinks.
With the sports world buzzing about your pastime, find ways to make the most of this.
Heck, I’ve even seen some suggestions of bagging the MLB All-Star game, extending that break to a couple of weeks and putting the WBC in the two-week dead zone that is the middle of July.
Wow, baseball getting a twoweek global stage all to itself. Yeah, what purpose in growing the game or your league would that serve Rob?
The World Baseball Classic was just that. Classic.
Now Baseball needs to grab this world-class opportunity.