Until We Meet Again
We’ve seen our last WBC action for the next four years. The attendance issues are a bit concerning given the American venues hosting the American team, but it’s hard to be disappointed with the championship game and crowd. Let’s talk about some of the aspects that may need tweaking.
Television
The WBC presented the first opportunity for the MLB Network to produce original broadcasts. The first round games, when Harold Reynolds was reserved to the studio, were easily the best called games of the tournament. The announcers largely allowed the action to dictate the talking points and emotion. There was no inherent bias and the announcers did some research, presenting compelling information on players most of us knew absolutely nothing about. Reynolds’ presence in the booth all but killed that, as he all but transformed the broadcasts into a typical ESPN broadcast.
Speaking ESPN, whoever thought it was a good idea to have Joe Morgan, Steve Phillips, and Bud Selig in the booth at one time during a meaningful and exciting game should really never work again. Never. Also, the apologetic comments after Derek Jeter made a mistake was ridiculous. Jeter is a great player, nobody is ever going to argue that, but guys, you don’t have to act like a sycophant towards him.
Scheduling
The “plus-one” games were pretty worthless, even if they determined seeding. Some will complain about Japan and Korea playing five times and about repeat matches in general. With a limited field in a double elimination tournament, it’s hard to not expect some rematches. Perhaps a reseeding is in order although I’m sure the idea of a compelling “rematch” storyline is too match to pass on.
Venues
American fan turnout seemed to disappoint. With the best moment coming during the U.S.’s last stand as a unified “U.S.A.” chant broke out during Evan Longoria’s at-bat. Otherwise, the Japan and Korean fans stole the tournament. Perhaps it was the odd body paint, drums, chants, or presence of thousands of Thunderstix, but the atmosphere came across as everything you would hope for in the title game.
Heading forward, you have to imagine the U.S.A. team will have to go to a non-MLB stadium for a set of games. Where is beyond me, and how that would work with the TV schedule is again beyond me. The Olympics do it though.
Participation
A lot will be made of the perceived “lack of representation” for the Americans. In many ways, this is setting up for a “Redeem Team” similar to U.S. Basketball, only without the run of dominance proceeding it. There’s no easy solution here. For selfish reasons, I wonder if the U.S. team would ever consider going to collegiate athletes or even minor leaguers. Obviously that lowers the talent threshold and the tournament occurring during the college season makes the former nearly impossible, but who wouldn’t have tuned in to see Stephen Strasburg hurl against Daisuke Matzuaka or Yu Darvish? The American team was a bit stale to watch because of the familiarity with the players especially when you contrast it to their opponents.
Expansion is probably the next big issue. Whether that means expanding the field and tweaking the elimination rules or simply holding a qualifying tournament during the American off-season, it will be interesting to see just how popular the tournament can become internationally over the next four years.
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I had a lot of fun watching the games but I still view them as exhibitions and not a serious world championship. Until the best MLB players universally accept the WBC it won’t be more for me. The ‘best’ players in baseball were mostly in spring training or on the trainers table still. Pujols, Lincecum, Santana, Utley, Sizemore, Sabathia etc.
I agree with your comments on the WBC. As for myself, it kind of surprised me. The games were generally more entertaining than I expected, especially among the Asian teams, which took the tournament very seriously. I don’t see how they could expand it though. Expand where? For example, they’ve already got South Africa in there, and there isn’t even a pro league in South Africa. They just play club baseball. What I would like to see is rosters that were only permitted to have players who’d never been in the majors. Of course, that would have problems too. It would give an unfair advantage to the Cubans.
I believe Israel has a pro league now, so they might be worthwhile soon.
I believe it has folded.
However Europe does have a pretty good collection of teams. Germany, France, Spain, Czech Republic and even Russia deserve at least a shot at Italy and the Netherlands, and they would probably all be comfortably better than South Africa.
There are now quite a few European players in the minors (nearly 50, obviously discounting Curacao/Aruba/Antilles guys who aren’t really Dutch) from several countries (yes, even Russia has 2 in the Twins organization… both named Lobanov, even though they’re unrelated) and that number is looking to increase.
In addition to those European teams, I’m pretty confident that Colombia, Nicaragua and a couple more would be able not to embarrass themselves enough to have a viable qualifying phase (throwing Panama back in there possibly). Worst case is 2006 China, and they certainly have come a long way (the South Africans too, and so has Italy… 0 MiLB players during the 2006 WBC, 5 right now), so holding a qualifying phase for minor teams in the off-season surely wouldn’t hurt anybody.
I totally agree about the Steve Phillips, Bug Selig and Joe Morgan debacle. What I thought was a serious problem was the ticket prices. I was lucky enough to score some bleacher tickets for the US/Japan game on ebay for $20. Their face value was $40, though, which is very close to how NLCS games were priced. And I think the San Diego tickets were similarly steep. So I think it was disingenuous for the broadcasters and commentators to complain about attendance when the games were priced as if they mattered to US fans as much as a championship series.
That said, I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the game. I expected a lot more violent confrontations at Dodger Stadium and saw only one: Some dude had the gall to wear a Giants jersey to Dodger Stadium.
edit: “were,” not “was.”
Yes, the tickets at Petco for the semifinals were ridiculously high but they didn’t really enforce the seating policy so I got $15 seats and moved down to right on the field. However, maybe they should hold the games in a difference place — Petco Park on a mid-March night isn’t really that pleasant.
Agreed. The plus one system was awful… I think it actually made people lose interest.
You should check out this Ombudsman’s column on ESPN, which address that problem at the entire “family of networks” level:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=3983722
I hope that link works. If not, you know the drill.
I thought the Selig interview was good and I was interested in hearing his thoughts on a lot of the things regarding the WBC, but it should have been done between innings and not taken over a full inning of a very entertaining game.
Espn was better than usual(I know that’s not saying much) and actually criticized team USA a lot for not having Dunn DH, pinch hitting Longoria because “he really wanted to play” and basically treating it like an all-star type exhibition game while their opponents are doing everything possible to win the game.
Great write-up, especially on the broadcasting. The know-it-all style of commentary (“That was bad, Jon. Now, what I would’ve done was…”) was/is so pervasive that it makes the most bland, vanilla play-by-play sound refreshing.
Like when Joe ripped the Japanese manager for calling for a steal that didn’t work out, even though the guy stole the base clean, he just overslid the bag. Bad luck = Bad tactics? FIRE JOE MORGAN
The thing that was so galling about Morgan/Selig/Philips, was how often the cameras cut away from the game to show them talking. As if THEY’RE the reason I’m watching the broadcast. Get a clue you dinks- I like baseball, not watching fat old men ignore the game I’m trying to watch.
I feel so bad for Jon Miller sometimes. I once heard him call an entire game on the radio by himself. It was fantastic- passionate, knowledgeable, descriptive. Why they think he needs help is beyond me.
I love the WBC. I’m embarrassed that we are running doofy guys like Dunn out there with poor defense. I don’t know why Jeter was at short over Rollins, either. Respect factor? please. I thought the Longoria move was laughable. I realize most MLB fans aren’t going to go crazy over this tourney, but it certainly matters to me. We need to at least put our best effort forward, and that includes managing. I love watching teams like Korea and Japan play. I love Cuba, although their defense wasn’t as good as usual. Its good baseball. All baseball fans should be loving it.
I think some simple planning to get the players who will be involved to have a much shorter off-season, allowing them to come to the WBC is ‘April game’ shape is essential. Having one of your best pitchers (Peavy) not able to control his breaking stuff and pitching like he’s in rehab doesn’t do anyone any good.
I admit I don’t know the timing/scheduling of the Asian leagues, but I don’t see why October isn’t the perfect time to do it. By October all baseball fans in the US who don’t route for NY/Boston/LA are pretty much out of luck, unfortunately. Why not take all of the great players not in the MLB playoffs and run them through the WBC? Split the show times to not interfere too much with the MLB games and we’ve got the best month of baseball the world has ever seen. October Madness. Pitchers are stretched and striding (unless they’ve got a tired arm:)) and hitters are geared up. It also gives all of the great players not on a great team a chance to truly play meaningful games when they are ready and it feels appropriate. Everyone would love it? Why isn’t this happening?
Joe Morgan can interpret an eye twitch to mean the player thought about making the play to second but remembered his High A coach telling him to take the out. He’s ridiculous. for a slower game with more time to fill, the announcers still aren’t as bad as football.