In March we are going to be treated to what is supposed to be baseball's version of World Cup Soccer, the World baseball Classic. Countries will be assembling their national teams to compete in a tournement.
Now I'm as big a baseball fan as anyone in America, but does anyone really care about this contrivance? It's scheduled roughly when Major League players should be in Spring training, which means their conditioning and more importantly their game conditioning will be at their worst. Teams certainly don't want their players to get hurt in this silly exercise, and some probably will, but their isn't much the teams can do about it. The Commissioner's Office is making it happen for "The Good of the Game."
The other thing that makes no sense is who players are going to play for. If a player was born in and is a citizen of the United States, then he should play for the United States team or no one else. Mike Piazza playing for the Italian team and A-Rod trying to decide which team he wants to play for it turning an event that is already difficult to take seriously into a complete exercise in buffoonery.
Of course that leads me into the issue of Puerto Rico. Isn't Puerto Rico part of the United States? Why do they get a separate team? This isn't sports related as much as it is political. Isn't it about time we either let Puerto Rico become it's own country or make them the 51st State.
Oh well, real baseball begins pretty soon and life will be well again.
Posted by Narnia3 at January 25, 2006 6:52 PM | TrackBack