ShareThisWhen the inaugural World Baseball Classic was first announced back in 2005 and played in 2006, I really had no strong feelings about it one way or another. I knew it was the brainchild of commissioner Bud Selig -- which isn't necessarily a good thing -- but I also realized it was designed to put international players on an international stage prior to the start of the big league baseball season.
Yet as the event drew closer, it came under attack from all sides. It was as though some shadow government had taken control of the stick and ball sport and decided to ruin it. What havoc would these shady characters wreak?
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's already happened.
Best I can figure, the World Baseball Classic was dismissed by some scribes and so-called purists for one simple reason:
It screwed up the routine.
That's it. Nothing more.
In March, we're all supposed to be watching Grapefruit and Cactus League games featuring all our favorite players and all our favorite teams.
But why not root for the good ol' USA for a while before we start cheering for teams in the good ol' USA?
And can't our northern neighbors show some Canadian pride before the Toronto Blue Jays start playing "real" games?
Personally, I'm looking forward to it -- as much as I can look forward to anything involving big league ball these days.
I remember watching the Americans take on Mexico three years ago and it was a great atmosphere. 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.
As the event begins, I expect we'll hear more whining from folks who think the A-Rods of the world need to be in big league camps instead of the WBC.
I won't be one of them.
It's a baseball tournament. No more, no less.
I figure if I like a sport enough to sit down and watch an exhibition game that doesn't mean anything (that would be spring training contests), 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 adamsons(at)andersonindependentmail.com.)
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