Good baseball came early
Well the Championship game of the first ever World Baseball Classic (WBC) between Japan and Cuba was just the other night (which Japan won). I haven't mentioned the WBC at all yet (b/c well to be honest I just haven't had time to update as much) but I love the idea. I watched as much of it as I could (b/c sadly some of the games were at wacky times) and I enjoyed them all. I know a lot of people trashed it but I really liked it as a whole. Granted the WBC is far from perfect, but it's just the first one. They can make some tweaks and changes by the next one.
The first major thing I'd do is change the time of year this thing occurs. March is a terrible time for this tournament. I would change it to either November (like about a week after the final game of the World Series) or maybe January (they just couldn't put games on Sunday b/c of the end of the football season). But I hope they don't always keep it in March, b/c it's right up against the NCAA and NIT Tournaments. And while I could give a rat's ass about college basketball, I know the nation as a whole has their attention more on that in March.
I also don't like the whole thing with ties being decided by some crazy point system. Both Japan and Team USA had 1 win and 2 losses in the second round of the tourney but just b/c of some weird system, Japan was able to advance. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think USA deserved to advance instead or to win (hell I didn't have them in the final four anyways, my original prediction for the finals was Japan vs Dominican Republic with Japan winning it all), but they should have forced Japan and USA to play a tie-breaker game. Baseball should be won on the field not through some crazy ass calculations (this is one of the many reasons why people can't stand the BCS system in college football).
And finally, if this is the WORLD baseball classic, then it needs to be spread out over the world. Ok, they did play some games in Japan and some in Puerto Rico, but the majority of games were played in the US. They need to spread the wealth. I think if anything, the majority of the tournament should be held in the country of the winner of the previous WBC. I think it'd just make things more fair.
But anyways, like I said, it's only the first time, so we'll see what they wind up changing. But in the meantime, I really enjoyed it. And even if they don't change anything I will look forward to the next one.
And for another thing, I really liked some of the uniforms and caps of the teams. My current fav is the batting helmut for Team Japan, but the cap for the team is also pretty sweet (I may just be tempted to buy one).
The first major thing I'd do is change the time of year this thing occurs. March is a terrible time for this tournament. I would change it to either November (like about a week after the final game of the World Series) or maybe January (they just couldn't put games on Sunday b/c of the end of the football season). But I hope they don't always keep it in March, b/c it's right up against the NCAA and NIT Tournaments. And while I could give a rat's ass about college basketball, I know the nation as a whole has their attention more on that in March.
I also don't like the whole thing with ties being decided by some crazy point system. Both Japan and Team USA had 1 win and 2 losses in the second round of the tourney but just b/c of some weird system, Japan was able to advance. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think USA deserved to advance instead or to win (hell I didn't have them in the final four anyways, my original prediction for the finals was Japan vs Dominican Republic with Japan winning it all), but they should have forced Japan and USA to play a tie-breaker game. Baseball should be won on the field not through some crazy ass calculations (this is one of the many reasons why people can't stand the BCS system in college football).
And finally, if this is the WORLD baseball classic, then it needs to be spread out over the world. Ok, they did play some games in Japan and some in Puerto Rico, but the majority of games were played in the US. They need to spread the wealth. I think if anything, the majority of the tournament should be held in the country of the winner of the previous WBC. I think it'd just make things more fair.
But anyways, like I said, it's only the first time, so we'll see what they wind up changing. But in the meantime, I really enjoyed it. And even if they don't change anything I will look forward to the next one.
And for another thing, I really liked some of the uniforms and caps of the teams. My current fav is the batting helmut for Team Japan, but the cap for the team is also pretty sweet (I may just be tempted to buy one).
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