World Baseball Classic Needs To Improve
Japan Repeats As Champion Of International Tournament
Mar 26, 2009
The second World Baseball Classic has come and gone.
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and his counterparts from the International Baseball Federation declared the 16-nation tournament, played between March 6 through March 23, a success.
And just like the first WBC in 2006, Japan came out on top and repeated as champions with its 5-3 10 inning win over Korea on March 23rd at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, Calif.
There is no doubt that the Japanese team has plenty of major league talent with likes of outfieler Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Marinerws and pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka or "Dice K" of the Boston Red Sox, on the team.
Nobody can argue that that nation is the true world champion, including the United States team that lost to Japan in the semifinals.
But while the tournament was a success, it still has bugs that need to be worked out.
Too Much Travel for WBC
The first round of the WBC was divided into a group of four teams.
The games were played in Japan, Canada, Mexico and Purerto Rico.
There was a double-elimination format introduced this year compared to the round-robin of three years before. The top two teams advanced to the Second Round.
The second round and championship round games were played at sites in the United States; Dophins Stadium in Miami, Fla., Petco Park, in San Diego, Calif. and Dodger Stadium.
Jumping from site to site called for a lot of travel and expense.
At the next tournament to be held in 2013, the planners might want to look into having one host country for all the games, like the World Cup in Soccer.
Reduce WBC to Two Eight-Team Groups
The second adjustment would be to have two eight-team groups play each other in a round-robin with the top two advancing to the championship round.
The players, especially on the United States team, complained that they weren’t getting enough work in.
The WBC was held in conjunction with spring training in Major League Baseball. Each player belongs to a club team that was playing exhibition games in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues in Florida and Arizona preparing for the Major League Baseball season that starts in April.
Other players compete in professional leagues in their own countries.
In the 2009 WBC, there were too many off days.
The next WBC should have the teams playing every day with maybe one or two off days to allow the players to prepare for the season while playing in meaningful games.
Japan and Korea Play Five Times Against Each Other
Even though the Far East teams had the best success, they still had thoughts to improve the tournament.
Japan and Korea played each other too many times during the tournament. Fans of those country’s teams would have liked to seem them play Cuba, Puerto Rico, Canada, Venezuela and the United States more often.
The United States and Venezuela also played each other four times.
Cuba didn’t have a good tournament having failed to get out of the second round. It was the first time Cuba did not finish in the top three in an international baseball tournament.
