The WBC in T.O.

A quick tour thru the morning links today, after last night's WBC final went on so long they coulda fit a World Series game inside of it:

Yes, Japan wins the WBC, scoring four times in the first and four in the ninth to beat Cuba 10-6. I've become a believer in this thing, after an admittedly crabby start. How to make it better? Yesterday, Rich Griffin took his run at it, and here's my shortlist. First, the umpiring has to improve, after being a major sideshow. Second, drop the pitching limits, which serve only to reinforce the notion that this is essentially a major-league preseason series, and not a truly open, planet-baseball competition. The timing is fine, there's nothing wrong with March -- move it up a little bit, says Dominican manager Stan Javier, and that'd be fine with me too -- but what about putting some games in a northern city (or cities) with a dome? Like Toronto, just to offer an example -- you knew that was coming, didn't you? -- where the community is multicultural enough to go for it in a big way (and where this time of year is pretty much free of any serious sporting competition, outside of the races for 10th place)?

On the subject of baseball and the world, check out this link to a post on the 1956 Dodgers commemorating the victims of the Hiroshima bombing with a plaque that now sits alongside the hot dog condiments in Vero Beach: "We dedicate this visit in memory of those baseball fans and others who here died by atomic action on Aug. 6, 1945. May their souls rest in peace and with God's help and man's resolution peace will prevail forever, amen." (via Robot Wisdom)

In the NHL, Montreal and Atlanta win, and so the east is not quite so tight at the bottom of the playoff grid. No such thing out west, where Anaheim scores twice in the third period to beat Dallas and leapfrog into a playoff spot, at least for now.

Right after Terrell Owens signs with the Cowboys (and wasn't it strange and a little ominous that Bill Parcells was nowhere to be seen during all that hugging?), Paul Tagliabue announces he's retiring from the NFL commissioner job in July. Coincidence?

Sid Lowe, whose coverage of La Liga in the Guardian is always worth a look, has a good one on the strange saga of two Spanish soccer plays who failed drug tests, one of them nearly four years ago -- but their cases drag on:

Four different bodies, plus the government sports minister, and UEFA, have been involved without reaching a conclusion and the Competition Committee resigned en masse, complaining of outside pressures. The new committee announced Gurpegui's guilt the next day, only for it later to emerge that they had not had time to read the reports properly. And, amidst it all, the World Anti-Doping Agency, accepting that this was a grey area, removed 19-Nandrosterona from its list of banned substances. Four years on there is no solution in sight.

Comments

[Gary M. Mugford]

Chris,

The World Baseball Championships were a noble first effort, but they have to put more thought into making it a PRESENTATION. The attempt to save money by having the first round set up regionally has to go. It led to a sort of Non-Latino/Latino foredestined final. The pairing of poolmates from round 2 in the semi-final was stupid. The proper final MIGHT very well have been Japan/Korea or Cuba/DR. Instead, we got a three-peat of the Japan/Korea conflict and this one had a different outcome. Don't all three-peats? Ask Glen Howard.

What they SHOULD do, is hold the same drawing that the World Cup of Soccer does. Set up your 8 top seeds to run a pod in, letting Canada host with the Rogers Centre. Let Minneapolis host a pod, given the racket that joint can get going. Let the TokyoDome host a site which includes Japan, Canada, Netherlands and Puerto Rico. It'll still be hopping. Let Tokyo AND Seoul host pods. And as you go from pod to the second round and then to the knockout rounds ... don't have teams replay themselves at every opportunity, for gawd's sake.

Move the event up three weeks, that still leaves most players a week to decompress and rejoin the MLB teams (or their own leagues in Korea, Japan, Cuba, the list goes on ...). Run the event in a shorter time period with 32-man rosters to get extra pitchers into play. If that eliminates the American scheduling advantage, so be it. No pitching limitations, of course. Get multiple networks involved so that two games are played simultaneously, and there's 4x2 games played each day. No more rinky dinky Davidson umpire types. Only the best.

And pressure teams to let players play. Teams cannot deny a position player and get ONE challenge on the pitching front. Never again, shall the USA field a squad that includes an Al Leiter, one of TWO American pitchers who retired after the event. National teams SHOULD be made privy to medical info on pitchers coming back from injury. I have no doubt that Rich Harden HAD to take this spring easy. But I DO have my doubts about Gagne. And Dempster, pfahhh!

They didn't sell the sizzle. They didn't sell the players on playing. Yet it overcame to be something special. Imagine if they REALLY tried!?!

[cy]

Gary, old pal -- remember the Tornados! -- about Tokyo AND Seoul, now that would be rockin', except that South Korea in March is pretty cold and as far as I know, all the stadia are outdoor. Since this is an MLB production, though, it won't happen regardless, and I think the far eastern grid we saw will continue - along with a U.S. revenge storyline for the next one (which we shall endure with long-term goals in mind). As for making teams use certain players, I don't think that will work. But the pressure of competition, after this, will take care of that, at least to some extent. (And if after that players still don't want to play, too bad.) The key here is that, like you said, the WBC overcame a number of hurdles to break through and be noticed. That is saying something, with the NCAA tournament practically a religion south of the border at this time of the year. The Rogers Centre in '09, I say! Let's start beating the drum here, right now.

[Gary M. Mugford]

I'll bet you that if the Koreans got notice that they COULD host a pod, they'd put up a stadium in a few months. Something about "If they build, they will come ..."

The idea of having eight venues, all playing, is to get that eight games a day concept going. That means the first rounds can take six days as each team plays every other day. Two days of travel/rest and the second round goes in another six days. I'm up to two weeks at this point. A day for travel and play the semis in a two or three-day period. Sixteen days max. Tournament starts March 15th and is over April 1. MLB starts April 4. Maybe a week later. Yes, the event runs counter to March Madness and yes, sportshounds like you and me would be forced to setup that third and fourth TV. But jiggering around the dates might let you make the first two days of March Madness that travel days between the first two rounds. The second Saturday could feature day-time games and Sunday night games, thus programming around the NCAA and having the semis and finals as midweek attention grabbers wouldn't be too bad. Remember, if you schedule, they will watch .... (apparently)

I'm as big a hoops junkie as anybody out there. But having Memphis (Go Memphis Go!!) wasting some directional school in game CBS REFUSES to leave, or watching Canada down the Americans again? No choice. I'm with Ernie. Let's play 2, 4, 6, 8, whatever. It's a beautiful day for baseball.

GM