Yet another World Baseball Classic has come and passed, and yet no one seemed to care. Japan defeated Korea for a second time… woo?

For scheduling purposes, Major League Baseball decided to stage the WBC during Spring Training, whilst the players are working on improving their conditioning for the upcoming season. During each round of the tournament, pitchers are held to strict pitch counts and positional players rarely get to see a full game of action in order to prevent injury. In a tournament that should represent the best the world has to offer, instead is featuring players who are no where near the peak of their game and will not be for months. When the National Hockey League agreed to allow their players to participate in the Olympics, the league takes a two week respite in the middle of the season. We are ensured that the players are at the top of their game, as they have already been playing hockey for a few months. As fans, we know we are seeing hockey at its best… That is not the case with baseball.

A second problem with Baseball’s decision to hold the WBC during Spring Training is mindset of the fan. All baseball fans love the phrase “X amount of days until pitchers and catchers report” but in reality, most fans dread Spring Training games. The idea that their sport is returning is what fuels the excitement, not the games itself. When you take this mentality and add upon it one of the more exciting tournaments in sports, March Madness, you are left with fans who are more engrossed with their brackets then to concern themselves with the WBC. Last weekend, CBS featured forty eight basketball games within the span of four days… who knew that ESPN airing games from the WBC?

Finally, no one understands the format to the tournament. In the first round, the United States was paired with teams from Canada, Italy and Venezuela. One would expect a round robin format, such as in the World Cup, where the top two teams advance from the pool. Instead, the United States played Venezuela twice and never played Italy. When I asked other die-hard baseball fans for an explanation, no one understood how the tournament was scheduled.

If you want the World Baseball Classic to succeed, the fans need to be convinced that they are seeing baseball at its best and displayed in a way that is most engaging. The WBC fails at achieving these goals… maybe in another four years they will figure it out…