USA’s championship helps secure future of World Classic
The World Baseball
LOS ANGELES Classic did not necessarily need Team USA to win the championship to guarantee future success, but let’s face it:
The players’ perspective has certainly changed.
“I remember in ’06, my rookie year, this thing was kind of laughable,” said U.S. reliever Pat Neshek of the Philadelphia Phillies. “It was like, ‘What is this garbage?’
“Now, after what we’ve done ... everyone’s going to want to be part of this.”
Team USA’s 8-0 victory against Puerto Rico in Wednesday’s title game marked the first time in four tries the country that invented baseball was able to win the sport’s pre-eminent international tournament.
How much that enhances the event’s stature remains unknown, but the early signs can’t be ignored. Players not only are volunteering their services for the WBC that likely will be played in 2021 but already are kicking themselves for rejecting the opportunity to play in this one.
While they were bored out of their minds playing meaningless exhibitions in front of small crowds from Dunedin, Fla., to Goodyear, Ariz., Team USA played in front of sellout crowds in Miami and 51,000 fans in the title game at Dodger Stadium.
“Even in the first round, your phone starts to buzz a little bit,” said Tony Clark, executive director of the players union, “where guys start to second-guess whether or not they should have or could have participated.
“When you see it, they get very excited very quickly about the opportunity perhaps the next time the lights come on.”
There was so much noise before the WBC about who rejected invitations to play for Team USA, it was a slight to those who did make the commitment.
Really, did it matter that Clayton Kershaw wasn’t pitching Wednesday at Dodger Stadium? He might have drawn louder cheers, but he wasn’t going to outpitch Marcus Stroman, who didn’t give up a hit until the seventh inning.
Did it make a difference that Mike Trout and Bryce Harper stayed in their spring training camps? They would have provided the Madison Avenue star power, but they wouldn’t have appreciably exceeded the production of Brandon Crawford, Eric Hosmer and Christian Yelich.
“I’ve had players already tell me this is the greatest experience of their life,” Jim Leyland said after the final game of his brilliant managerial career. “We had players that wanted to be here, and that’s the players you want.”
Sure, there’s plenty of room to tweak the tournament. Two officials told USA TODAY Sports that they were strongly considering moving the WBC a week later in their next go-round, giving pitchers more time to be ready.
Certainly, it could help alleviate the constant interference from teams throughout the tournament, with Leyland talking to three on the morning of the championship game.
It would avoid the awkwardness and discomfort the Tampa Bay Rays helped create for ace Chris Archer. He pitched on the opening night for the USA but left after 41 pitches, frustrating Leyland and the staff. He was supposed to pitch in the second round, but because the USA’s schedule did not align with the day the Rays wanted Archer to pitch, he was back in Port Charlotte, Fla., while his U.S. teammates were winning the second round in San Diego. And when he volunteered to join the team for the championship round, U.S. officials told him to stay home.
While MLB Network was thrilled with TV ratings, drawing a viewing audience that’s 20 years younger, too many fans didn’t get to watch the games. If they don’t subscribe to the network or couldn’t stay up until 2 in the morning back East, they weren’t tuning in.
The championship round needs to be played somewhere in the Eastern time zone; you can’t start games at 10 p.m. Eastern time and expect fans to watch.
Let’s face it, the greatest and most emotional games of the tournament in the USA’s bracket were in Miami. They not only drew huge crowds but also brought unbridled passion that’s lost in the regular season.
“The energy that was in the ballpark for those games was beyond my expectations” U.S. second baseman Ian Kinsler said. “It was crazy. I loved it.”
The tournament will return in four years, Commissioner Rob Manfred vowed, and officials are open to changes that will make it even better.
The hottest idea among several players, such as San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, is to shut down the sport for two weeks every four years to play in the WBC. It probably won’t fly with team owners, and many players would prefer a two-week vacation than playing even more games in a long season.
Yet no matter the timing or tweaks, the WBC will never again be the same.
“Hopefully we made a difference,” Posey said. “I know it’s something we’ll never forget.”