The World Baseball Classic - Yey or Nay ?

The World Baseball Classic: Multiple nations coming together for spirited, peaceful sporting events featuring many of professional baseball's most elite players sounds great right?

No, actually its horrible. 

Hear me out before you disagree. First off let's get the most obvious reasons out of the way; MLB players are paid millions of dollars every year (unless your Mike Trout: $510,000) to play as many games as they can at the highest of their ability. The major league baseball season is already arguably one of the longest and most grueling in all of professional sports. Billions, read that again: Billions of dollars are invested by teams in their players as part of a commitment to plan and field their teams for a full season. The risk of one of these elite players getting hurt during a non-MLB event seems at best silly, and at worst a chance to ruin years of planning and player productivity.

For me the next reason is the real kicker: The WBC is an irrelevant distraction. Harsh I agree, but for me the WBC has the same appeal as the MLB All-Star game, which is to say none. I call it a distraction because, besides the allure of the questionable looking trophy, who is going to remember who won this year? If you can name the nation that won the 2009 WBC congratulations you like baseball too much.  Get a new hobby, go fishing or learn how to play pool really well. Baseball's premier game is and for the foreseeable future will be the World Series. Taking Major Leaguers away from their teams during spring training; a time when team bonding, strategy and pre-season rituals are being built makes no sense. The weird part about the disruption the WBC could potentially cause is that it was in part created by none other than Major League Baseball. Weird right?

Ok, so you still don't think the risk of injury or lack of time spent with their teams is enough of a reason to dislike the WBC? You are gonna say playing in the WBC is great for players because it gets them prepared for real games aren't you? NO. What actually gets players properly prepared and strong enough for a full season is daily access to the top trainers, conditioners, medical professionals and coaches in professional sports. What gets players properly prepared for the season is spending as much time playing with the teammates they will take the field with for the whole season.  There are millions of dollars tied into strength and conditioning coaches, trainers and medical staff's salaries to develop preseason training schedules, exercises and drills. I could also go on and on wining about how there is also a limited amount of innings during spring training for players to develop the trust in their teammates and coaches, pitchers pitching more innings, etc. etc....but I think I'm ready to stop.

As we come to a close I can admit that there is one really good thing about the WBC: it only happens once every 4 years. The WBC is in the same category as leap years, Dressage and FIFA, something we can usually ignore until its over. I don't like that Baseball is no longer an Olympic sport. I do not think however that a 3-week long international tournament running through the heart of MLB's spring training is the answer. The risk to players is not a fair compromise for promoting and exposing baseball to a larger, more international audience. It is my sincere hope that after reading this you will have almost as much acute disdain for the World Baseball Classic as I do. Hopefully I have done my job, but just in case I haven't I've added the picture below for Yankees fans to seal the deal. For me the WBC is a big old Nay.