I have been pretty excited about the start of the World Baseball Classic. I really hope that the WBC grows in popularity to help baseball become an international sport on par with soccer. I think that there needs to be a few changes made to the WBC for that to happen:
- The WBC needs to be organized and managed by an international baseball organization, not US MLB.
- The WBC should be moved to the end of the baseball season. It is being held at the beginnig (spring training) which seems to cause many players to avoid it due to spring training competition for starting positions. Moving it to the end of the season would eliminate that issue and the players would also be in top form instead of just warming up.
- The WBC should pay the players salary in the event that a player is injured while participating in the WBC. This would probably make the teams feel better about letting their players participate. However, moving the WBC to the end of the season might help with this issue also.
- Players should only be allowed to play for their country of citizenship. If players are allowed to jump around and play for whatever country they want (free agency), why bother even having the WBC?
Just some thoughts.