Selig on top of world over WBC

From TV ratings to attendance, the WBC proved skeptics wrong, and MLB commissioner Bug Selig is 'thrilled. I really am.'

BY KEVIN BAXTER

kbaxter@MiamiHerald.com

 

SAN DIEGO - It's not often someone spends $50 million to put on a party and comes away considering it a bargain. But that's the way Major League Baseball and its players union felt Tuesday as it swept the floors and put back the furniture following Japan's 10-6 win against Cuba in Monday's finale of the 17-day World Baseball Classic.

 

''I thought that history would know this was a watershed moment and that the ramifications of it would be immediate as well as mid-term and long-term. And I don't think there's any question in my mind now,'' commissioner Bud Selig said. ''It's exceeded in intensity, in interest, in just every criteria that you can use to judge something.

 

''I'm thrilled. I really am.''

 

Which means you can bet the house the WBC will be back in 2009.

 

''I'm very confident,'' the commissioner said, ''that this will be the platform that we use to take this sport internationally to the dimension that I want to take it.''

 

The tournament opened a cloud of skepticism, with critics insisting attendance would be dismal and TV ratings would be worse. Plus, the timing was bad, players would get hurt and, if the U.S. team failed to make the final, interest in the WBC would wane even further.

 

All that pessimism proved way off target.

 

POSITIVE SIGNS

 

The total attendance of more than 737,000 was just short of projections, and TV viewership was healthy in the United States and heavy overseas (Japan's semifinal win vs. Korea got a 36.2 rating in Tokyo -- meaning more than one-third of all TV sets were tuned in to the game -- and numbers for Monday's final were expected to top that).

 

Only one major-leaguer -- Washington Nationals pitcher Luis Ayala of Mexico, who blew out his elbow -- is expected to miss time with a Classic-related injury, and the WBC final, which not only lacked the U.S. team but featured just two big-league players, drew a raucous sellout crowd.

 

''When you do something for the first time, it's not going to be perfect. You tinker with it,'' Selig said. ''[but] I think for the most part, everybody got it right.

 

''There are adjustments that will be made, but we've got the next year, year and a half to do that.''

 

Timing is one issue that will be discussed. Options include moving the tournament to November, after the World Series, suspending the big-league season for two weeks and holding the WBC in midsummer or adjusting the spring training schedule slightly to give players more time to prepare for a March tournament.

 

Organizers are likely to get more adventurous with where they hold the games as well. With the exception of six first-round contests in Japan, the tournament was staged entirely on U.S. soil. Sites already under consideration for 2009 include Havana, with Venezuela and Mexico likely to get a look.

 

ADDING MORE TEAMS?

 

Some discussion, organizers say, also will be given to expanding the WBC beyond 16 teams and holding a qualifying tournament featuring countries such as Nicaragua and Colombia, which didn't get invitations this year.

 

''It's something we'll consider,'' said Paul Archey, who, as baseball's senior vice president of international relationships, was one of the point men for the WBC. ''One of the goals was to grow the game internationally and to sow grass-roots development. And the more countries you can reach with that, through giving them an opportunity to participate, the better.''

 

Archey said he also would like to expand the umpire pool -- 22 of the 32 umpires in the first WBC were from the United States -- and tweak the complicated tiebreaking system. But the players, he said, already have embraced the tournament despite those imperfections.

 

'I know of no players going back and saying, 'Boy this is a real pain in the neck. This is terrible,' '' said Gene Orza, the main players union representative in the WBC leadership. '[Pittsburgh's] Jason Bay said the only regret he had was that it's not being played next year. We have so many guys who are leaving this tournament saying, 'This was really fun. It's something I really want to do again.' ''

 

And in three years they'll likely get that chance.

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/14155708.htm

good stuff. Thanks for posting

 

The most positive item for me is the excitement from the MLBPA

i loved the WBC...october baseball in March

YAY for Nicaragua! Columbia too.... I hope they get added :thumbup

YAY for Nicaragua! Columbia too.... I hope they get added :thumbup

 

 

Hell yeah! The Nicas can ball. They've played well internationally in the past. They're certainly better than South Africa, China, and Taiwan.

YAY for Nicaragua! Columbia too.... I hope they get added :thumbup

 

 

The Nicas can ball.

:lol :lol