Any baseball fans at Stony Brook? If Stony Brook's baseball fan pulse is at all consistent with that of the state, I imagine the answer to my question is a resounding YES. Now that baseball is no longer an Olympic sport, a new tournament has been established with the hope of developing into a "World Cup" event of baseball. The World Baseball Classic started last week and has already become very popular in the U.S. and in the world.
An ESPN SportsNation poll showed that 77% of those who had voted by March 16 were still interested in the remaining semi-final and final championship games, even after the U.S. team lost in round two of the tournament. Also, according to Major Leage Baseball president Bob DuPuy, ratings showed that 2.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the Mexico-U.S. game on Thursday. The game was the most watched show among 18-49 and 25-54 year old men, which is pretty good considering that the NCAA basketball tournament was going on at the same time.
The World Classic was created by MLB and the MLB Player's Association and is sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). Sixteen national baseball federation teams were featured in the inaugural tournament: Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, The United States, and Venezuela. There were four divisions of four teams each. The tournament would be played in four rounds. The first and second round winners were determined by the two best records in each pool after round-robin play. The remaining four second round winners would be matched up in two semi-final games where the winner of each game would determine the two teams in the final championship game.
My only qualm with the semi-final and final is that it should also resemble the first and second round winning qualification. A best-of-three series would determine the semi-final winners and a best-of-three or five, series the championship team. Single elimination is not a format suited for baseball. It has been established that when two MLB teams play each other during the regular season, they usually play a 3 game series, which has serves as a good measure at determining who is the better team.
At any rate, single eliminiation makes for bigger excitement since it all boils down to that one game. This was certainly the case for the Korea-Japan semi-final game. Korea was undefeated and beat Japan twice in the previous rounds. Nevertheless, Japan was able to eek out a dominating performance and capture the berth to the championship game.
Hats off to Cuba too, which has shown that even against a Dominican Republic team filled with prominent MLB players, it can shut down a dominant offense with outstanding pitching thanks to Cuba's veteran pitcher, Pedro Lazo. Just as the past few World Series have shown, with the Florida Marlins, Anaheim Angels, and Boston Red Sox, the most dominant team or the team with the best record is not the most likely to reach the final championship game.
Of course, I'm dissapointed that the U.S. team failed to reach the semi-final game, but like all other true baseball fans, I remember that there's always next year. It also makes me hungry for the next World Classic when, I hope, these steriod pumped and overpayed American ballplayers will put down their stacks of $100 dollar bills to prove to the world that the U.S. indeed does have the greatest players. Maybe we'll have a "Miracle Team" rather than a "Dream Team" in 2009 or 2010, when the next World Baseball Classic grabs the attention of the globe.
By Shawn Pottorf