The Brilliant Game

13 May 2005



Baseball Creates Its Own World Cup

All one can say is "about damn time!" Yesterday, Major League Baseball, the MLB Players' Association, Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korea Baseball Association and the International Baseball Federation finally got their acts together and announced the World Baseball Classic, a World-Cup style tournament that will take place in March 2006. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig will provide details in mid-July right before the American All-Star game, but for now, it is enough to know it's happening.

Soccer is the world's most popular game, in part, because of the World Cup. The Cup has provided a focus for national federations and players. Unlike the World Series, the winner of the World Cup is truly the champion of the world. Athletes, who are by definition, competitors drive themselves to make the national team and take their place on the podium. The quadrennial tournament is the most important in a player's career.

International sport can be a force for progress. Nixon went to China after the tour of the US table tennis team in China. And peace prospects between India and Pakistan improved radically after President Musharraf watched the Pakistani cricket team play in India. There is the risk that patriotism's evil twin, nationalism, will rear its ugly head (e.g.,Berlin 1936 Olympics), but in general, exposure to other nations is healthy, and sports like music can be international. For that reason, it is heartening to see that the Cubans will be invited to play. Their national side has swept the Olympics and PanAm games.

However, it would be good to adopt an idea from international cricket; for competitive balance the islands of the Caribbean are the West Indies, a single team (and the favorite of the Kensington Review despite recent troubles). It is unlikely that the teams of Central America could compete with Mexico, the US, Japan or Korea solo. Nicaragua is baseball mad, but the country lacks the population to have a competitive talent pool. Allowing it to combine with Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama into a single side might make for more balanced competition.

Regardless of the problems, the World Baseball Classic is long over-due. The only problem now is whether to allow the ill-conceived designated hitter rule into the event. After all, there are somethings worse than communism. "Castro si, DH no!"


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

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