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How to make the World Baseball Classic better....


TBGKon

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Now that the tourney is over and Japan has claimed their dominance, I've been wanting to get the input of others on how to make this a better event. I know it's only in it's infancy, but everything has its successes and struggles.

In my mind, here's a thought taken from Karl Ravech during a spring game this season. His idea was to push back the start of the tourney till later in spring training. It would still have the 16-team format, but would cut it down to a Final 4 before the regular season began. The plan would then move on to a Championship in replacement of the All-Star game in WBC years, which opens up the host site to more than just warm climate cities.

Logistically, I know a lot need to be done to have this happen, but its just an idea. So, anyone have thoughts on the concept or an idea of their own?

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Here's what you do start the 2013 season earlier.

Say March 21st. Have a regular ST.

Play a shortened regular season 154 Games

Play the Playoffs and World Series

Have a Two week break then a ten day camp

Play the Classic in November.

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One of the big things I would change is roster eligibility. It just seems dumb that seemingly any US-born player can play for any country that they might have a friend's-neighbor's-uncle's-cable guy living in. It doesn't make sense that Mike Piazza(from Norristown, PA, or therabouts) played for team Italy in '06. Along the same lines, it doesn't make a whole lotta sense that A-Rod is American one year, Dominican the next.

As far as timing, it's not gonna work everywhere. I doubt the Italian or Dutch leagues run the same time as MLB seasons. Someone's season's gonna get interrupted.

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Here's what you do start the 2013 season earlier.

Say March 21st. Have a regular ST.

Play a shortened regular season 154 Games

Play the Playoffs and World Series

Have a Two week break then a ten day camp

Play the Classic in November.

Owners aren't sacrificing eight games of regular season baseball for this thing.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Here's a thought: don't hold the thing in the United States during spring training. Stage it in Japan after the World Series. Stage it in Australia during the winter months up here in the states. If the idea is to have the world more exposed to the game, then play the games in places where the rest of the world could actually see them.

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One of the big things I would change is roster eligibility. It just seems dumb that seemingly any US-born player can play for any country that they might have a friend's-neighbor's-uncle's-cable guy living in. It doesn't make sense that Mike Piazza(from Norristown, PA, or therabouts) played for team Italy in '06. Along the same lines, it doesn't make a whole lotta sense that A-Rod is American one year, Dominican the next.

As far as timing, it's not gonna work everywhere. I doubt the Italian or Dutch leagues run the same time as MLB seasons. Someone's season's gonna get interrupted.

I've mentioned it before, but Italy has an interesting citzenship rule. Essentially, if you have Italian blood you are elgibile for dual-citizenship. So many of the Italian players may have been born in the US, but many may have had or at least be eligible for dual citizenship. Also Piazza has gone over to Italy alot during the offseason to promote the game. He's very popular over there. If the true purpose of the tournament is to grow the game globally Piazza almost has to play for Italy. It's not like team USA was counting on him (he probably wouldn't have even made team USA).

But I do agree, that once you've picked a nation you shouldn't be able to switch during the next tournament. When ARod picked Team USA in 2006, he should have been required to only play for Team USA when he plays in the tournament.

In my mind, here's a thought taken from Karl Ravech during a spring game this season. His idea was to push back the start of the tourney till later in spring training. It would still have the 16-team format, but would cut it down to a Final 4 before the regular season began. The plan would then move on to a Championship in replacement of the All-Star game in WBC years, which opens up the host site to more than just warm climate cities.

Logistically, I know a lot need to be done to have this happen, but its just an idea. So, anyone have thoughts on the concept or an idea of their own?

I think Jayson Stark's plan is the best. He basically says do the tournament in 3 stages:

Stage One: Play-in Round- All the teams that did not qualify for the second round could be put into a play-in tournament. This could be played sometime during winter ball.

Stage Two: Second Round- Put all the qualifying teams into a couple of round robin groups. These games would take a week to play. You could extend Spring Training another week (like they did this year) and play these games at the end right before Opening Day. This would eliminate the argument that the players aren't in game shape.

Stage Three: Final Four- Play the Final Four during All Star Week (on Wednesday and Thursday). It would make a huge baseball week that is sure to dominate the sports ratings.

I really think this plan would be the best for the tournament.

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I've heard a lot of people bring up the All-Star Week for Championship week, and that makes a lot of sense.

The NHL does it every 4 years for the Olympics. That doesnt seem to be that big of an issue.

Heck the NHL takes 2 weeks off for the Olympic tournament.

I really think the idea of doing the Prelims in the Winter and Spring then the WBC Championships during the All-Star break makes almost way too much sense. Which means they probably won't do it :lol:

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One of the big things I would change is roster eligibility. It just seems dumb that seemingly any US-born player can play for any country that they might have a friend's-neighbor's-uncle's-cable guy living in. It doesn't make sense that Mike Piazza(from Norristown, PA, or therabouts) played for team Italy in '06. Along the same lines, it doesn't make a whole lotta sense that A-Rod is American one year, Dominican the next.

As far as timing, it's not gonna work everywhere. I doubt the Italian or Dutch leagues run the same time as MLB seasons. Someone's season's gonna get interrupted.

I've mentioned it before, but Italy has an interesting citzenship rule. Essentially, if you have Italian blood you are elgibile for dual-citizenship. So many of the Italian players may have been born in the US, but many may have had or at least be eligible for dual citizenship. Also Piazza has gone over to Italy alot during the offseason to promote the game. He's very popular over there. If the true purpose of the tournament is to grow the game globally Piazza almost has to play for Italy. It's not like team USA was counting on him (he probably wouldn't have even made team USA).

But I do agree, that once you've picked a nation you shouldn't be able to switch during the next tournament. When ARod picked Team USA in 2006, he should have been required to only play for Team USA when he plays in the tournament.

In my mind, here's a thought taken from Karl Ravech during a spring game this season. His idea was to push back the start of the tourney till later in spring training. It would still have the 16-team format, but would cut it down to a Final 4 before the regular season began. The plan would then move on to a Championship in replacement of the All-Star game in WBC years, which opens up the host site to more than just warm climate cities.

Logistically, I know a lot need to be done to have this happen, but its just an idea. So, anyone have thoughts on the concept or an idea of their own?

I think Jayson Stark's plan is the best. He basically says do the tournament in 3 stages:

Stage One: Play-in Round- All the teams that did not qualify for the second round could be put into a play-in tournament. This could be played sometime during winter ball.

Stage Two: Second Round- Put all the qualifying teams into a couple of round robin groups. These games would take a week to play. You could extend Spring Training another week (like they did this year) and play these games at the end right before Opening Day. This would eliminate the argument that the players aren't in game shape.

Stage Three: Final Four- Play the Final Four during All Star Week (on Wednesday and Thursday). It would make a huge baseball week that is sure to dominate the sports ratings.

I really think this plan would be the best for the tournament.

Great idea by Stark. The All Star site that year could also host the WBC Finals. 4 days of baseball would be awesome, and you wouldnt have to lose the ASG every 4th year.

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I've heard a lot of people bring up the All-Star Week for Championship week, and that makes a lot of sense.

The NHL does it every 4 years for the Olympics. That doesnt seem to be that big of an issue.

Heck the NHL takes 2 weeks off for the Olympic tournament.

Except the NHL is probably going to stop particiapation in the Olympics after the Vancouver Games. For the same reasons why the NHL owners want out of the Olympics the baseball owners aren't going to agree to a break in the season.

Some ideas

-They need to shorten the tournament. This tournament can be held essentailly using the same format in 10. First eliminate the seedings game, their meaningless and pointless. Just have the upper (winners) bracket winner be the #1 seed out of the pool, and the lower (losers) bracket winner be the #2 seed. Now each round can be played in 3 days by taking a page out of the NCAA tournament. For round 1 have 4 sites (as is) The first two days hold double headers, with the final lower division game being on the 3rd day detirmine the 2 seed. Then you start round two the next day (you would schedule the times for the previous games to allow for quick travel for the winner) and 2 round two sites. It would follow the same format as round 1 with doubleheaders the first 2 days, then the last game on day 3. After the second round you have a day off then semifinals. The semifinals would be held on he same day as a doubleheader. The next day would be the championship game. There you go the entire tournament in the same format in under 10 days. Obviously to do all the sites of the tournament would have to be in the same hemisphere so that you eliminate games in Japan (unless you hold the entire tournament there).

-Second thing they need to is cross the pools for round 2. There is no reason that two teams should be playing each othe up to 5 times in the tournament. For a short tournament like this it is excessive. Easy way to do this is cross the pools. That means the #1 seed from pools A and B would got to the same second round pool and the #2 seeds from pools C and D. Likewise the top seed from C and D go to the same pool as the # 2 seed from pools A and B. With this combined with the elimination of the seeding game the most two teams can play each other in the tournament is twice (either once in pool play and in the semifinals/finals or twice in pool play with 1 being eliminated). Now teams would play a wider veriety of teams in the tournament which adds to the intrigue.

As far as the timing of when the tournament takes place I would put it at what is currently the last week and half of spring training. I would then move the start of spring trainging back a week in February and move the start of the season back a half a week to start right after the tounament. By doing that pitchers and players should be in game shape to be able to play full out. You would still need some pitching rules to make sure guys go on normal rest and not short rest but it should help.

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I don't like the idea of the WBC final replacing the All Star game at all. I think November would be the best time to play it, and extending the All-Star Break would be a lot of fun. The issue IMO would be getting all of those final teams back in one place, especially if the team is not full of Major League players like the Korean team.

 
 
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Play it one week at the end of spring training in a simple one loss tournament and rotate the tournament. You have the first tournament games in New York and the winner of the tournament hosts the tournament the next time around. So if Japan wins they host the next tournament four years later and you have to win it to get it back here or wherever. You could either have off days between rounds or you could just play four straight games Monday through Thursday and have Opening Day on Fridays instead.

 

 

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It takes seventeen days. Play it in November, after the postseasons are over in North American and Asia. The weather would be perfect for baseball in Florida and California, and the players should still be in game shape.

I suspect it would be a TV ratings killer in the U.S. though, so that probably won't fly. American sports fans have been conditioned for over a century now to look upon the World Series as the grand finale of the baseball season, so anything after it would probably be an afterthought, especially with all the competition it would be facing: the NFL in midseason, college football approaching the most critical part of its season, college basketball and the NBA just getting started, etc. In March, about the only things the WBC really has to compete with are the college basketball conference tourneys and the early rounds of the NCAA tournament.

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