Death to the Roundeyes!

Some people have all sorts of suggestions for "fixing" the WBC, but as I read article after article on the subject it all just comes across as "waaah the United States didn't win". Well boo-fucking-hoo. The fact of the matter is that there is no good time to hold the event if you want to maximize major leaguer participation. During March? I'm not on the bandwagon claiming that the WBC is ruining the sanctity of spring training or anything (whatever the hell that is... I thought spring training was about getting drunk and heckling Chris Shelton), but the American public is kinda-sorta distracted by other things during this month. Perhaps not the best time. Right after the end of the MLB season? If players are unwilling to participate in March because it cuts into their offseason then I fail to see how they are going to be falling all over each other rushing to play a basically meaningless tournament right after 162 games (or more if they made the playoffs) when they could instead be buying plane tickets to Hawaii or starting their post-season recovery. During the All Star break? I suppose that this suggestion, depending on how it synchs up with the other leagues around the globe, makes the most sense to me... but I thought the whole point was that you were expanding the MLB brand? Instead every 4 years you'd just be sacrificing one of the biggest MLB events of the year to try and force Americans to watch something that they have already resoundingly stated that they don't care about.

That, however, is the crux of the matter. So many people in America view the WBC the past few years as a failure when in reality it has been a huge, resounding success. The point of the WBC was to increase exposure of Major League Baseball around the globe. Sure looks like it is doing a bang-up job of that to me. Almost 55,000 showed up for the Japan-Korea final and ratings are up across the board. The point of the tournament is for it to be much more internationally-focused - why can't people just accept this? Waaah America doesn't win everything. Waaah. Puh-leez.

Sportswriters are the only ones who seem to really care about the WBC anyway. I don't see why they are trying to shove this down our throats. Is it moderately entertaining and did I watch a lot of the games? Sure. Do I give two shits that America didn't win? Nope. You'd think they would learn that the good 'ol US of A has a history being utterly indifferent when the media tries to force it to like sports events. How did that $250 million work out LA Galaxy? El-o-el.