WBC Great Idea Or Not ???
At first glance I thought this World Baseball Classic was organized to bring more exposure to Major League Baseball not to mention BUCKS! Millions of them!
Now that I look at it more closely, this could be really cool. There are many many rules that need to be implied down the road for this to survive, otherwise, this is another attempt of going to the well once to often.
The first rule is that the American Government should not dictate who should be granted or dissallowed to partisipate. Too late now. The American Government has refused to allow the Cuban National team to partisipate on American soil due to their trade embargo with Fidel Castro’s communist island nation.
"It is our policy that we do not confirm, deny or discuss licenses," Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest."
Secondly, the sites where theses games are going to take place are all 12-month warm climates. With that in mind, could they have possibly set this tournament up so that it does not conflict with March Madness? February instead of March would have been much better. Every major league team has a handful of players who will not be with their parent clubs while representing their country which leads to the bigest problem I have.
Mike Piazza, who was born in Norristown, Pennslyvania is playing for Italy. Nomar Garciaparra, who was born in Whittier California is playing for Mexico. Ronnie Belliard, who was born in the Bronx, New York playing for the Dominican Republic. Matt Mantei, who was born in Tampa Florida is playing for Italy. Danny Haren who was born in Monterey Park California is playing for the Netherlands.
C’mon! This is a joke! Alex Rodriguez deciding if he should either play with the United States or the Dominican Republic because his parents have Dominican roots. Rodriguez finally decided he should play for the United State and honor his American Citizenship. How big of him. Can the United States trade Rodriguez to the Dominican Republic team for $250 million dollars and call it even? Does the Dominican Republic even have $250 million dollars to spend?
I think my grandma had a heated affair with a man from the Netherlands. Maybe I should pack up my gear and go help out the Netherlands and Andruw Jones. Oh wait, he’s already got Danny Haren (mentioned above), Shea Hillenbrand who was born in Mesa Arizona, and Mark Mulder from South Holland, Illinois.
According to MLB, a player with a dual participation opportunity can be listed on two provisional rosters. From that point, it is up to the player to decide with which team he ultimately plays.
I’ll watch this farce because I love baseball. Plus, I haven’t seen Dave Nilsson in like 10 years! He in on the Australian roster with Trent Durrington who was released at the end of the season by the Brewers.
Bill Hall made the team or asked to be on it. So is Chad Moeller and Ben Sheets. Corey Koskie is playing for Canada and Carlos Lee is playing for Panama which is fine with me since he was born in Aguadulce, Panama.
If you were in charge of setting up this World Baseball Classic, what rules would you enforce? Your comments on this would be much appreciated…
The Brewer Nation 
This is something that should be played following the World Series. I can’t wait until one of these big stars get hurt and then we will see who thinks this is a good idea. I just hope it isn’t are stud catcher Moeller that gets injured. I think this will be fun to watch but these are major league ball players and there first priority should be to the team that is writing them a pay check, now most of these players are going to miss all or most of spring camp. This doesn’t make sence to me. Go Brewers!
I hate the WBC. I may watch some of it, because I too love baseball, but it seems like you said. Baseball is going to well to often. I don’t believe that this is going to attract any more American fans, it may take more away. To much of a good thing isn’t always so great. Not to mention Schanks comment, once one of the big boys goes down with a an injury we’ll see how good of an idea this is.
This is ridiculous. The WBC is a great idea but having these Americans play for Italy,the Netherlands,etc. is stupid. Plain and simple. I think you should have to be born in a certain country to be able to represent that said country. I sure hope they take this seriosly when they play and don’t turn this into a glorified exhibition/all-star game. If I was Dominican, I’d take pride in playing for my country. If I’m Mike Piazza, I’d only play for the USA. That’s one man’s opinion…