Like it or not, WBC will be back in 2009

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OK, go ahead and circle your calendar.The World Baseball Classic returns a year from now.Remember the WBC, an international tournament with professional players from across the planet?It debuted in 2006 amidst much controversy. What seemed like a simple little plan -- have a bunch of baseball-playing nations compete for a "world" championship -- became cause celeb because it took Major League players away from spring training.Oh no! This would surely destroy baseball, some thought.Would they introduce interleague games that count in the regular-season standings?Maybe they'd designate one guy to bat in place of the pitcher, thus taking real strategy out of a game that is strategy driven.Heck, they might even give Tim McCarver a television job where he talks so much for so long that by the end of the telecast we are simply trying to process white noise that has long since drowned out our screams of agony.My bad. That had already happened.No, the inaugural WBC become the favorite whipping boy of scribes and so-called purists for one simple reason:It screwed up the routine.That's it. Nothing more.And best I can figure, it did nothing to harm the "integrity" of the game.Steroids wiped that out just fine, thank you.Anyway, I liked it. I didn't like the fact that the United States went through the motions, finishing 1-2 in pool play and falling on its face while Japan won the thing. Still, I thought it was a good idea and still do.Aside from the action inside the lines, it was fun to watch the fans. It's not often you go to a pro baseball game and see people waving flags, chanting and banging on drums. That's the type of atmosphere one expects at a World Cup soccer match.You don't expect it while leisurely soaking in the National Pastime, which for citizens of Mexico and the Dominican Republic -- among others -- is currently the International Pastime.I won't lie to you. Most of my fan focus in March is on NCAA basketball conference tournaments, but I still found time to watch the inaugural WBC.And in 2009, I'll find time to watch it again.Despite what the doomsday theorists tell us, the WBC isn't going to spark martial law, it will not cause the sun to set in the east, and its existence doesn't mean dogs will mate with cats.It's a baseball tournament. No more, no less, no problem.And as for me, I figure if I liked a sport enough to sit down and watch a spring training game that doesn't mean anything (which I already have this week with the Braves), I might as well sit down and watch a game that does.How much it means, of course, is entirely up to you.(Contact Scott Adamson of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at www.andersonsc.com.)