Disruption Galore – the 2023 World Baseball Classic

This spring, we will witness the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic (WBC). I call it Bud Selig’s attempt to copy soccer’s World Cup. It’s an interesting concept, and the idea is noble.  We’d like to see the game globalized and allow amazing athletes on the other side of the globe to prove their abilities as “baseball” players instead of soccer, basketball, or rugby, or cricket.  But there are a lot of problems with organizing this event, and in the end, it creates complications for major league baseball.  Many of which make the players more injury prone.  But let’s look at some of the problems I have with the WBC.

How can you say the team represents Italy when there are very few (sometimes “none”) Italian-born players on the team?

I can repeat the same for France, Israel, the Czech Republic, and others.  You allow players with some ancestral ties to a country to play for them as representatives, even though they don’t speak the native language and have never lived in the country they represent (some having never set foot in the country).  Essentially saying that “France” is playing the U.S. is completely inaccurate, as the French team is made up primarily of U.S. players with a relative (such as a grandfather) from France. These rag-tag assemblages end up playing an All-Star team of US citizen players.  Calling those players French is a farce. At least in the World Cup of Soccer, the French team that was defeated in the finals last month by Argentina had African-born players that lived in France, and spoke French; many were naturalized French citizens.  You can’t say the same for the WBC. 

This doesn’t apply to all countries, but a lot of the final qualifying teams fall in this boat, most notably Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Israel. I noticed that in the qualifying rounds, a country like Argentina, made up entirely of its own countryman, got blown out and didn’t come close to qualifying, being eliminated by baseball-rich Panama and Nicaragua. If the WBC had strict citizenship and/or residency requirements, the actual teams in the finals would be cut in half. Either that, or we’d see blowouts and mercy rule games when the USA would compete against a country with very little baseball background and resources.

The timing of the tournament is problematic.

Baseball is the one sport with such a long season that t is very difficult to find the ideal time for this tournament.  The organizers have determined that during March (American baseball’s Spring Training), is ideal.  Perhaps that is the best time, but it is definitely a disruption.  March is when hitters are working out the kinks and getting their timing in focus.  For pitchers, they are stretching out their longevity and attempting to get geared up for a major league workload.  This is a recipe for injury.  Especially in the quarter, semi, and final rounds when games are played before large crowds and in a playoff-type atmosphere.  Try to keep a pitcher like Julio Urias from overthrowing in a WBC semi-final representing his country before 45,000 fans at Maimi’s LoanMart Field.  He will be excited and won’t want to leave a close game when he knows that his bullpen is filled with minor league AAAA players at best.

Crowning a champion after seven games against seven different opponents is a bit ridiculous.

But how else are you going to do it?  Other sports, such as basketball, hockey, and soccer, are more conducive to round-robin tournament play that can crown a legitimate champion.  Not baseball.  At least in the respective competitive baseball leagues around the world, there is a season of games with a substantial amount of play that legitimizes the participation of certain teams.  Here, you drop these final 20 teams into the tournament after a non-lengthy qualification tournament, and then the winner will probably end up with a 7-0 or 6-1 record in WBC finals play.  Now that is a crap shoot.  Well, a crap shoot between Japan, Korea, the USA, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and possibly the Netherlands.  No other team has much of a chance to win this thing.  Can you seriously expect Israel, the Czech Republic, or Italy to compete for the title?

The Mexico/Canada debacle and run differential rules

WBC rules encourage teams to run up the score.  There is a run differential rule that breaks ties in the group stage of play.  So, if you get blown out in a game, it behooves you to not only win the next one but to win big or risk elimination.  That’s what happened in 2013, Mexico vs. Canada.  Canada was up 9-3 in the 9th inning, and their leadoff hitter bunted for a base hit.  Canada had lost by a big margin in earlier competition, and they needed to have a win by a big margin. The opponent didn’t quite understand this. Former Dodger Luis Cruz, Mexico’s third baseman, essentially signaled through gestures for his pitcher to hit the next batter.  A subsequent brawl ensued.  The highly partisan pro-Mexico crowd in Phoenix had to be warned to not enter the field of play.  Some haymakers were thrown, and punches actually landed. 

This wasn’t one of those baseball brawls where many of the guys rolled on the ground laughing at the bottom of the pile; this was a real fight.  Larry Walker was Canada’s first base coach, and he got a hold of Mexico’s Adrian Gonzalez and held him back. Told him his health was much more important to baseball than that particular game. It was a pretty ugly brawl combining an interesting mix of conflicting cultures, a misunderstanding of the run differential rules, and some perceived broken rules of baseball etiquette.  Baseball has been functioning for 150 years under certain norms, and the WBC asked those to be broken with their tie-breaking format. I am unsure if those rules have been changed for the current format of games in 2023.

The WBC’s impact on the Dodgers

With patterns and routine being key to a team’s success, the WBC distraction just might hurt the Dodgers the most, based on the number of key players they have that will participate. It should be noted that Philadelphia has Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Realmuto agreeing to play, Bryce Harper was on the list, but due to his offseason surgery, he is out now. The Phils have the next highest amount of participants from one team.

With the WBC starting right in the middle of Spring Training, the Dodgers lose key components that are a “must” for their 2023 success.  These are four All-Star caliber players that will be away from the team for two weeks. This shouldn’t break their season, but it certainly distracts from normalcy and could impact games in the early season.  The following Dodgers will be participating in the WBC:

Mookie Betts – (USA), Clayton Kershaw – (USA), Will Smith  – (USA), Julio Urias – (Mexico), Dino Ebel (coach) – (USA)

Tournament play will run from March 8-21, where the USA team’s pool play against Canada, Colombia, Great Britain and Mexico will take place at the Diamondbacks Chase Field from March 11-15.  Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and the Championships will be played at Miami’s loanMart Field from March 18-21.