The atmosphere around the World Baseball Classic is different this time around. There is waiting. There is excitement. There is intrigue. I can’t wait, which is saying something.
On the surface, it makes sense. There is anticipation because we haven’t seen major league quality live baseball since November. There is excitement because there are so many listings stacked. There is intrigue as we may see some curious pairings, such as Shohei Ohtani pitching to Angels teammate Mike Trout.
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Not that any or all of these things have been absent from previous tournaments, but underneath there seems to be more weight in 2023. It’s not measurable, but it’s definitely noticeable. The stakes seem higher. The whole thing feels more, dare I say, epic.
Players, including the biggest names, are eager to participate. Those who can’t speak of huge disappointment. You feel like it’s important now. The competition, the national pride, the camaraderie with new/temporary teammates. The ingredients look more potent than ever with this edition, and everything is lining up to produce a memorable tournament – and perhaps, for the first time ever, finally produce the kind of event that makes the WBC one thing.
As my colleague Ryan Fagan wrote, the WBC has always felt like a glorified exhibit. As much as the players might want to win, there were no stakes, no real prizes. It sounded more like fun than anything else. Not this year.
“There is only one thing on our mind, to try and win all of this. … That’s the whole reason I entered, trying to win this thing,” Team USA captain Mike Trout told reporters recently. “There’s nothing else, you know? Everything else is a failure.
It’s not just press conference speeches. It is a real and desirable goal.
Which makes me wonder: Could a WBC championship ever be considered equal to, or at least close to, a World Series win? It’s not a crazy idea. The World Cup has become football’s most prestigious league, widely regarded as more highly than even a Premier League title. But that didn’t happen overnight, or even in the space of a few decades. There has been nearly a century of World Cup history building the hype to make it what it is now. The WBC, meanwhile, is just a teenager. But as it matures, who knows? We can look to the World Cup once again for a sliver of potential.
There were only three World Cups before a 12-year hiatus fueled by World War II disrupted the initial momentum. But since it revived in 1950, with a huge assist from the 1958 edition that introduced Pelé to the world, the World Cup has become the world’s most watched sporting event. The WBC had four editions before the COVID pandemic nullified both the 2021 edition and the momentum it gained from an exciting 2017 edition. I can’t help but see a small parallel.
To be clear, we are still probably decades away from the WBC becoming even half the level of the World Cup. But maybe we’ll all look back 30 years from now and say that 2023 was the first “true” or “modern” World Baseball Classic, the year the event reached the next level of prominence and prominence.
So what will it take for that to happen? Maybe Ohtani becomes fully superhuman again and astounds the world with mound dominance and some big home runs with his bat. Maybe Trout goes against all opponents and re-establishes his place as the best player on the planet. Maybe those two face off in the finals with the bases loaded and the game in play. Perhaps the Dominican Republic’s stacked roster produces a number of top-notch performances and blows every other country away. Maybe someone we’re not thinking about repeatedly shows up great in a way that makes people feel like they just have to watch.
Regardless of how this year’s tournament turns out, the WBC still has the potential to grow into something that causes a stir as a super-prestigious event in the baseball world, the kind of thing that becomes a big deal for even the casual baseball fan. , the kind of thing that grows baseball’s footprint around the world, the kind of thing that creates new fans who fall in love with the game.
It’s probably still a long way off. But it should start sooner or later. 2023 seems as good a point as any.
