Monday 11 March 2013

WBC Thoughts from a Canadian

First of all, I am officially bored with spring training, it has been a month since most teams reported and we still have 3 weeks until games start to count for real. While watching the World Baseball Classic games this weekend I got a touch of meaningful baseball, these games seemed like playoff games. When it comes to putting the teams together there is lot of "who cares, the big stars aren't even showing up", but for the players that do show up, you can tell how much it matters. I will not go into the Canada/Mexico brawl to much, but I have to say I was a little proud at how the Canadians stuck up for each other, to me it showed they were a team that cared on the outcome and not a collection of random players in an exhibition game. The success of teams like Italy and the Netherlands make for interesting story lines, and seeing what relatively unknown players like Canada's Chris Robinson and Mexico's Sebastian Valle and Eduardo Arredondo is always interesting. Even though Canada is out, I still look forward to the rest of the games and fin myself wishing the WBC came around a little more often.


4 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's fun to see all the players play with their hearts and caring about the result ! Looking forward to the Semis !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed. While the Tournament certainly has flaws, I've been entertained by it.

    And as a fellow Canadian, I admit to being proud about how they handled themselves after the Italian rout. I had no problem with their actions versus Mexico & they should hold their heads up high to have made the U.S. sweat like they did.

    Fun tournament.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree...it's been a fun tournament with lots of great plays and as you said - playoff style intensity.

    a couple of bloggers mentioned they hate the tourney and wish it would go away - but not me. I think it's great baseball and its far more interesting to me than the meaningless inter-league games during the season.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am all for it. I would like it if Canada and USA weren't in the same pool, as I feel closeness to both teams and hate to root against Canada.

    Also wish they'd tighten up the eligibility rules. Teams like Spain shouldn't really have a place there - they're all Cubans and Venezuelans.

    ReplyDelete