Since 2008, the World Baseball Classic has taken over as the favorite for hosting international teams to play against each other. The previous year, the Baseball World Cup was dropped and baseball was dropped from the summer Olympics. So many people had strong opinions against it, saying that it’s a shame, that America’s favorite pastime can’t be taken out of the Olympics.
I say differently though.
The problem with having baseball in the Olympics was the timing. The Summer Olympics took place in June/July, right smack in the middle of the baseball season; furthermore, it was in the middle of the beginning of the playoff race. At this time, teams would be so unwilling to give any of their players, especially their best players.
With the World Baseball Classic happening in the offseason, you could have any player come who accepts the invitation, and it is in the Olympic format, happening every four years after 2009, the first since then just ending in 2013, with the Dominican Republic taking the title.
This is a much better format, and I had even been one of those fans angry that the Olympics had dropped baseball, and had even dropped softball. Back when it happened though, I had no clue why, I was only a younger kid who thought that people just didn’t think baseball was an Olympic sport, and I was mad.
Now though, since the World Baseball Classic had started in late February, early March, I found out what the whole story was. With that in my mind, I am in full support of the Olympic committees’ decision, and I welcome the World Baseball Classic. Even though I must wait every four years, I got to experience the atmosphere of the game, as this year’s semi-finals and finals happened 30 miles away at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
I greatly enjoyed the game, and was more than happy enough to know that I was seeing major leaguers instead of college and minor leaguers, who were undeveloped and didn’t have much experience. The World Baseball Classic will be something I enjoy no matter what, until the day I die.