Is Next Year's WBC Already a Casualty of This Year's Pandemic?
To experience the World Baseball Classic is to love the World Baseball Classic. Just not necessarily anytime soon.
The next WBC, originally scheduled for spring of 2021, is on the verge of being cancelled. Not postponed, mind you; cancelled. And that's a shame.
The WBC, like the Olympics, is an every-four-years event, played during the odd-year preseason. Unlike the Olympics, however, the winners are celebrated in-person, on a diamond in the United States, instead of oceans away. While baseball is a truly international sport today, evidenced as much during the WBC tournament as at any other time, let's remember that it's our game. Made in America, nurtured here for parts of three centuries and as vital a public thing as there is on the planet.
Where would we be without baseball? We're finding out now. You tell me, how does it feel? And if the 2020 championship season is cancelled - yes, that's a possibility - I'm gonna want as much baseball as I can get as soon as I can possibly get it.
The 2021 WBC is anticipated in a lot of places; the Dominican Republic, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel, among many others. Just not here, apparently, if the powers that be are cancelling the tournament 10 months in advance.
I get that anything 2021-related it's not a priority in 2020, really shouldn't be during a worldwide pandemic, and that plans for the next WBC start sooner rather than later. But it's not like you're building new stadiums and freeway overpasses all over the world. The infrastructure is in place, and with Major League Baseball having pulled off four tournaments, each more glorious than the one before, running the thing is old hat by now. So why the early cancellation?
Team USA is the defending champion, having been crowned right here in Los Angeles four years ago at Dodger Stadium. It's just unfortunate that while Adam Jones was able to save the day for the Americans with a home run-robbing catch last March (see below), it doesn't look as though anyone can save the WBC, which I was already looking forward to next March.
And remember, glove conquers all.
Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.
