The World Baseball Classic

In every way you look at it is hard to justify the name of the World Series of Baseball. Two teams from Major League Baseball (MLB) take part in a best of 7 game series. Not at one point do the teams from the MLB play against teams from around the world (with the exception of the Toronto Blue Jays who play in Canada) and to claim that a team are the champions of the world is very far from the truth.

While it is true that the best player’s play in the MLB and that they come from different countries from around the world, the fact still remains that the World Series is a domestic competition.

So when the World Baseball Classic (WBC) was announced in 2006 it was a chance to see what some would consider as the real World Series, a tournament in which nation’s could compete for the first time.

Making its second appearance, this year’s tournament surpassed its inaugural year and was met with a genuine anticipation with team USA being many people’s favorite to claim first place.

Boasting some of the biggest names in the game such as David Ortiz, Jimmy Rollins and Ichiro Suzuki the Classic has really become the closest thing to a real World Series Of Baseball.





However, some believe that the success of the of the WBC is purely dependent on the USA's involvement and progress in the tournament.But during the group stage the US failed to sell out any of their games, even against fierce rivals Canada. The situation failed to improve in the knockout stages where in Dolphin Stadium Florida, the US only managed to draw a crowd of over 30,000 on one occasion.

Compare this to Japan’s first three games where they pulled an average crowd of 43,982 and even in the second round which they played in San Diego California they managed an average attendance of 15023 in a foreign country.

The tournament has come in for some criticism from some people in the media who believe that it interrupts the MLB's preparation for the regular season and causes injury to the players before the season has even started. The media have also questioned the attitude of team USA claiming the players and management see the whole tournament as an exhibition, whereas countries like Japan play seriously with a will to win.

Despite these criticisms, the US did make an effort on and off the field, hosting team dinners paid for by captain Derek Jeter and competing hard for every ball during games. Even this sort of unity couldn’t bring the US success as they lost to eventual winners and WBC holders Japan.