WBC - A Classic Case of Blah

It is amazing how things change in two years. Two years ago, George Steinbrenner was still well enough to blast the World Baseball Classic and was even more aggravated when new free agent signing, Johnny Damon, hurt his shoulder playing the...uh...classic. George is no longer in a position to postulate and Damon is pretty much irrelevant. But one thing remains the same: The Fan still hates the World Baseball Classic.

Okay, Jeter is playing shortstop. A-Rod is playing for the Dominican Republic (who knows why). Ichiro and Dice-K are playing for Japan (do they still want Fukodome?). Who cares. Well, a team's fan base will care if one of their players get hurt playing the Olympic wannabe.

And just like two years ago, writers will have two months of excuses to give for any statistical anomalies and blame them all on the WBC: "Pitchers had a head start." "He's usually a slow starter, but played the WBC." And on and on it will go.

All the "classic" does is eat up time before Spring Training can get a team's players in full swing with the rest of the team. What else does it accomplish? We already know that many countries such as Japan, Korea, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and others already have more passion for baseball than a divided sports nation here has. What need is there to promote it further?

The worst part of the "classic" is all the statistics generated that won't mean a thing. You mean A-Rod hit eleven homers this week? Well, oh yeah, they don't count. Or, to fans in New York, "Where were they in October when we needed them?"

The second worst thing is that so much of our favorite new sites will be buggered up with stories about the non-event for at least a month. The Fan said it two years ago, and will say it again. "Blah! and Bah Humbug! On the World Baseball Classic.