WBC Links: Volume II

On my way into work this morning, I had the pleasure of listening to WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton interview baseball icon and ambassador Tommy Lasorda about his thoughts on the World Baseball Classic (listen to the podcast here). His passion for the sport and enthusiasm for the international competition is exactly what baseball needs. He spoke about how the USA needs to win the competition to prove to the world that baseball is and always will be our game, and from that point he went into a one man pep rally. Boomer and Carton asked him whether or not he would have allowed his players to take part in the competition if the WBC were around while he were managing, and he enthusiastically said he would have given his blessing  because the players should feel honored to have the opportunity to represent their country on an international level. And you know something? I agree with him. It was great to hear his passion.

Also on Thursday, halfway around the world, Japan and China kicked off the WBC, with Japan’s defense of its ’06 Championship off to a good start. Behind a strong outing by Yu Darvish (3 Ks, 1 BB, 0 H through 4 innings; box score here), Japan shut out China 4-0. But before you go ahead and ordain him the next Dice-K, AJ Mass explains why the posting price may prevent Darvish from making his MLB debut for the next couple of years, and that we shouldn’t take WBC stats too seriously just yet.

Although Jim Caple believes there’s still plenty of room for improvement, the WBC is at least poised to generate much more interest this time around; the opener drew a near-capacity crowd (42,428) and Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune tells us that Tokyo is eating it up. Jayson Stark notes that it also helps that team USA is more prepared this time around.

Although it’s nice to see that the WBC is starting to gain momentum, there are still some serious concerns, such as the effect the tournament may have on MLB pitchers going into the regular season. And of course, there are always going to be those people who are going to hate on the WBC because of the injury factor.

Aside from this concern, Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post Intelligencer wonders whether or not sports fans will be able to turn down their March Madness radars enough to pay any attention to the WBC.

There are many different opinions on the WBC, and there’s still room for a lot of improvement, but the simple fact is that the players are enjoying it, and fans are following their lead.

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