America’s Pastime Goes Global: Why the World Baseball Classic Matters

“Baseball is our game: the American game: I connect it with our national character.”
– Walt Whitman

We’ll leave debates and conversations about our national character for another day, but Walt wasn’t always walking in the woods, writing Leaves of Grass, or O Captain, My Captain. He could oftentimes be found around a much better-groomed bit of grass, and though I can’t prove it, I hope with a hot dog in his hand. While the game itself has been around even longer, the National League is celebrating it’s 150th Anniversary this year, and in a century and a half, the game has decidedly gone global. From Asia to Central America, from the Baltics to Europe, just about everyone has gotten in on America’s Pastime.

And nowhere is baseball more global than the World Baseball Classic, with 600 players traveling to America, Japan, and Puerto Rico to give it their all for their country.

That includes seven Colorado Rockies players, and while none are playing for Team USA, it gives that little extra nudge to also doing some rooting for the Dominican Republic, Japan, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, and Israel. There are 20 international squads competing this year, and the first set of games out of pool play has been nothing shy of spectacular, with four “pools” of five teams each. Even more intriguing, there are rules to this brand of baseball many MLB fans are not familiar with, such as mercy run rules, pitcher’s pitch count limitations and “ghost runners”… no, not comprised of guys who played baseball back in the 1800s. Maybe most interesting of all is that now that we have passed pool play, everything is single elimination.

You read that right… as we get to the quarterfinals, there is no “series” to this like Major League Baseball’s postseason series. MLB instituted those series knowing that any team can have a bad day, so there should be some odd-numbered series of games to see who the best team really is. In the WBC, once you are past pool play (and if you made it in as one of the last eight squads), a bad day simply sends you home. The drama is high, and the stakes are even higher.

And that drama isn’t just comprised of wins and losses. Underdogs shocking favorites. MLB teammates now combatants, and with occasionally bad blood. Hell, the Italians have an espresso machine in their dugout to celebrate big moments, and it has been steaming and frothing it’s shiny silver arse off (Italy is one of the surprises in the group of eight).

So… you may consider yourself not a baseball fan, especially if you’ve attempted to be a Rockies fan during any of the recent campaigns, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the “Olympics of Baseball” a try. The passion these guys are playing with matches, and maybe even exceeds, most anything you’ll see in Major League Baseball’s postseason. There’s not much more motivating than national pride to get a guy playing his heart out. Somewhat fitting it all started out with a National League.

And if you plan to catch it, this is the moment, and there won’t be another one for another four years. The quarterfinals start this weekend, with games every day until Tuesday night’s big finale. Will the USA or Japan make it back to these Finals? Will Italy shock everyone? Will a ghost runner end up haunting a team? Okay, that last one was dumb, but it will be some of the highest drama you will find in sport any time soon. It’s past time to check out this pastime.