Mid-season WBC games?

Tovin Lapan believes the World Baseball Classic needs to follow other world sporting competitions (his example is soccer's World Cup) and become a mid-season tournament rather than a spring afterthought.

It will need to take some tips from soccer's World Cup, one of the greatest sporting events around, to truly capture the attention of the baseball world:

1. Too many players sit out the WBC for dubious reasons because their loyalty to their ballclub and the signer of their checks still trumps playing for their country.

2. Even baseball fans would struggle to recall that Japan won the first WBC, and South Korea won the 2008 Olympic gold medal, but every soccer fan knows that Italy won the last World Cup and Spain is the reigning Euro Cup champ. Baseball fans need to get more familiar with international squads, which will come with increased exposure.

3. Once the WBC does gain the type of notoriety mentioned in points 1 and 2, then it will be able to suspend the MLB schedule in order to hold the games. If the Classic were held when players were at their peak, say in the middle of the traditional season, instead of in pre-season when they are just getting back into shape, the quality of play would be better and the games more exciting. After all, the NHL suspends its season for the Winter Olympics, and European soccer leagues work around the World Cup.

There are all sorts of problems with these points, including the fact that soccer takes a much different toll on the body than baseball does, and rarely does a team play more than two games in a week in soccer. But the biggest problem with the WBC is its lack of tradition. World Cups in soccer are nearly as old as the sport itself. When there were no multi-million dollar contracts from club teams, soccer players felt more of a loyalty to playing for the national team for free. A certain glamor became attached to playing for country, and soccer players and fans alike have developed a unique bond with their tournament that stands the test of time. The WBC enters the baseball world at a time of mega-deals between teams and players, meaning loyalty is firmly established between player and ballclub and not player and country. This situations makes it a lot more difficult to get players to risk injury and play for free.

Moving games to mid-season and perhaps taking a couple of weeks off to play the games might help build interest and attract players, but this could mean scrapping the All-Star game in favor of the international tournament. None of it, however, is likely. The grueling nature of a 162-game baseball season and the lack of traditional rivalries between nations in the sport means the classic will struggle to gain legitimacy in the near future.