ESPN Networks To Broadcast World Baseball Classic

[Joseph_Gallant]

This coming March's World Baseball Classic I, the first-ever internatuonal baseball tournament featuring top major-league stars, will be broadcast over the ESPN networks, according to this article on Broadcasting and Cable's website (registration may be required).

The article hints that some early-round games may be seen via "ESPN Syndication", so they may end up on regional cable sports networks or possibly even over-the-air TV stations.

Slightly off-topic: Although baseball will be dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, should World Baseball Classic I be a success (both on and off the field), baseball may yet be kept as a Summer Olympic event in 2012 (London) and beyond, but with the major-league season suspended for 2 1/2 weeks to allow major-league players to compete for their respective countries (much as the NHL will shut down for a couple of weeks next month for it's players to play in the men's hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Turin/Torino for their respective countries).

 

[BRice16]

> Slightly off-topic: Although baseball will be dropped from
> the Olympics after the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, should
> World Baseball Classic I be a success (both on and off the
> field), baseball may yet be kept as a Summer Olympic event
> in 2012 (London) and beyond, but with the major-league
> season suspended for 2 1/2 weeks to allow major-league
> players to compete for their respective countries.

That will not happen, ever. Period.

MLB isn't the NHL. There is no way that the owners in MLB will agree to give up prime dates in the middle of the summer so that a few of teh players can play in the Olympics.

Unlike the NHL, attendence in MLB is not steady over the entire season. The seats are filled on a much more regular basis during the summer months when the kids are out of school and sitting thru a night game in Boston or New York doesn't involve a parka. Owners are not going to trade those dates for a week in April and a week in September (assuming that, like the NHL, MLB would add a week to the beginning and end of the season) when half their fanbase is in school and when it is colder than bejezus outside in 75% of your markets.

The WBC was founded, in part, to stop the discussion of MLB players in the Olympics. It's never going to happen.

 

[karaokelegend]

I think the WBC should only be held every four years, and not in March, so as not to disrupt spring training. I'd like for it to be held in November, after the season, so if someone gets hurt they have time to recover before spring training the following year.